Fand Catalogue

  

From Bohemia to Wessex

Cello Music from the Twentieth Century

Lionel Handy, cello & Nigel Clayton, piano

Various composers

This product has a total of 15 review excerpts; reload the page to see other quotations at random or take a look at all the reviews of this publication.

	…we have [Martinů’s] Second Sonata presented as idiomatically fast-flowing, life-enhancing and effervescent. The playing and recording nicely catch the flood and flow of Martinů’s music – typical of his early, seemingly euphoric, years in the USA … This is very fine Martinů playing…
	—Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International (August 2016)

	Thompson’s Cello Sonatina is in three short movements … It is a tonal and dreamily accessible piece … It does not lack for drama: its exciting Allegro feroce finale is notable for its brusque and virile attack contrasted with glittering piano pages. The moods portrayed and established throughout are mature. The composer shows no hankering after rhetorical convention to close each of the three movements. You will leave this part of the disc wanting to hear more.
	—Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International (August 2016)

Fand Music Press is delighted to have played a major role in the inception of the latest CD from the highly acclaimed cello and piano duo of Lionel Handy and Nigel Clayton, featuring a couple of world-première recordings of music published by Fand.

The meatiest work on the disc is the monumental Cello Sonata of Fand composer John Barton Armstrong. This rarely-performed masterpiece, which the composer considered to be one of his most important works, has occasionally been heard in radio broadcasts, but is receiving its first commercial recording on this CD.

The second piece to receive its first recording on this CD is by another Fand composer, Peter Thompson: his Cello Sonatina was written, coincidentally, in the same year as the Barton Armstrong Sonata (1981).

Finally, the third work on the CD is the Cello Sonata no 2 by Bohuslav Martinů; Lionel Handy and Nigel Clayton have already recorded his Sonata no 1 on a previous CD. The Cello Sonata no 2 is a stylistically pivotal work, being one of the first pieces written by Martinů after his arrival in America.

The CD itself is another particularly high-quality production: it shares a similar presentation to its preceding disc, BAX: Works for Cello and Piano, including a lavish 12-page full-colour booklet and top-quality presentation throughout (see sample images and track samples below). A must for anyone who bought the companion Bax CD!

Peter Thompson’s Cello Sonatina, as recorded on this CD, has generously been made available, with suitable accompanying imagery, as a set of videos on YouTube, as presented below:

Thompson: Cello Sonatina (CD tracks 5–7 in a playlist)

Sample pages

(Click to enlarge)

		Composer	Title		Performer(s)	Total duration
		Various	From Bohemia to Wessex Cello Music from the Twentieth Century Lionel Handy, cello & Nigel Clayton, piano		Lionel Handy, ’Cello, Nigel Clayton, Piano	01:02:30
	#	Composers	Work	Movement	Performer(s)	Duration
	1	John Barton Armstrong	Sonata for cello and piano (1981)		Lionel Handy, ’Cello, Nigel Clayton, Piano	00:31:00
	2	Bohuslav Martinů	Sonata no 2 for cello and piano (H286, 1941)	I: Allegro		00:08:09
	3			II: Largo		00:07:31
	4			III: Allegro commodo		00:05:37
	5	Peter Thompson	Sonatina for cello and piano (1981)	I: Allegretto flessibile		00:03:34
	6			II: Andante sostenuto		00:04:24
	7			III: Allegro feroce		00:01:59

Catalogue code: SLV1011 • Published: 7th May 2014
Entry last updated: 4th May 2014