Leighton Complete Cello Chamber Works

Music of staying power and tugging emotion, championed by two Raphaels

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Kenneth Leighton

Genre:

Chamber

Label: BMS

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 61

Mastering:

Stereo
DDD

Catalogue Number: BMS439CD

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Partita Kenneth Leighton, Composer
Kenneth Leighton, Composer
Raphael Terroni, Piano
Raphael Wallfisch, Cello
Elegy Kenneth Leighton, Composer
Kenneth Leighton, Composer
Raphael Terroni, Piano
Raphael Wallfisch, Cello
Sonata for Solo Cello Kenneth Leighton, Composer
Kenneth Leighton, Composer
Raphael Wallfisch, Cello
Alleluia Pascha Nostrum Kenneth Leighton, Composer
Kenneth Leighton, Composer
Raphael Terroni, Piano
Raphael Wallfisch, Cello
The programme spans more than three decades, the earliest item being the Elegy, Op 5, from 1949. It’s a seven-minute essay whose songful countenance owes not a little to Vaughan Williams and Finzi, and which originally comprised the slow movement of a Cello Sonata that Leighton wrote in his final year as an Oxford undergraduate. Completed in 1959, the Partita is cast in three movements, its opening, imploringly expressive Elegy leading to a biting Scherzo and prodigally inventive Theme and Variations. This is music of impeccable craft and genuine substance, always sure of its goal and shot through with Leighton’s own pungent brand of lyricism.

Likewise the meaty and rewarding Sonata for solo cello that Leighton wrote for Joan Dickson in the summer of 1967 amply repays close scrutiny, its enviably concentrated and exhilaratingly resourceful finale (“Flourish, Chaconne and Coda”) ultimately returning to the elegiac mood (and material) of the work’s introduction. Last, but certainly not least, is Alleluia Pascha Nostrum, written in August 1981 and subtitled “Meditation on plainsong melodies from the 12th‑century Salisbury Chant for Easter Day”. This piece crams a wealth of deeply personal inspiration, taut argument and passionate fervour into its 13-minute span.

Suffice it to report, Wallfisch and Terroni are superbly persuasive exponents, the performance of Alleluia Pascha Nostrum in every way a match for dedicatee Wallfisch’s own blistering world premiere recording with his father, Peter, on Chandos (5/93). Truthfully engineered by Paul Arden-Taylor and lucidly annotated by Adam Binks, this valuable BMS anthology merits the heartiest of plaudits.

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