Rebecca Clarke, whose dates are 1886-1979, almost slipped through the net. This pupil of Stanford and once-eminent viola player has only a two-line entry in Grove; but two of her sketches, of Irene Scharrer and Myra Hess, are reproduced in Lewis Foreman's book on Bax (Scolar Press: 1983), which also quotes from her unpublished memoirs. Better still, both her major pieces are now obtainable on cassette. In fact, the above issue is best heard in conjunction with British Music Society BMS404, which carries the Piano Trio and some songs.
In her Viola Sonata we recognize the same emotional intensity and use of dark tone colours that are found in the Trio; and again like the Trio, it is a convincing large-scale structure. All of which is to say that I have come to like the Sonata more than I did when reviewing the rival LP version by Josef Kodousek and Kveta Novotna (Supraphon 1111 2694, 7/81), which is backed with dull pieces by Eccles and Britten. Ponder and Alley are very capable performers, though I have reservations about the former's tone in the Clarke piece, and about the recording.
On turning to Bax's Sonata, one of the major pieces in the viola repertoire, comparisons of rather a different sort are necessary. Here the rival is on a Pearl LP (GEMM201, 7/81), a recording made in 1929 for Columbia—but not then issued—by the composer and his dedicatee, Lionel Tertis. Their authority cannot be duplicated, of course, but Ponder and Alley here obviously have the advantage of greatly superior recorded sound and in fact give an excellent performance. This cassette has no LP equivalent.'