Pamela Harrison: Chamber Works
Resonus Classics RES10313
Purchase CD directly from the Artists
My article about Pamela Harrison in Clarinet & Saxophone Magazine, Spring 2023
Robert Plane (clarinet)
Gould Piano Trio
with
David Adams (violin II)
Gary Pomeroy (viola)
Florence Plane (bassoon)
PAMELA HARRISON
Quintet for clarinet and strings
Sonnet for cello and piano
Sonata for violin and piano
Faggot Dance for bassoon and piano
Clarinet Sonata
Idle Dan for cello and piano
Piano Trio
Drifting Away for clarinet and piano
Reviews:
“Featuring a variety of chamber works by Pamela Harrison, this album is a wonderful addition to any chamber music enthusiast’s library. Each of the tracks are a world premiere recording and are incredibly well done by the artists, including clarinetist Robert Plane who also wrote the very informative liner notes…. While this review will mainly focus on pieces featuring clarinet, the entire album is equally enjoyable.
The album begins with Harrison’s Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, a three-movement work that features beautiful harmonies and is progressively moving forward musically, often building intensity through repetition. The artists’ ability to pass melodic ideas back and forth seems effortless, as if it were a conversation between friends. Throughout this entire work Plane’s clarinet playing not only shows great control throughout all registers, but also a rich, colorful sound that blends well with the strings. Like the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, Harrison’s Sonata for Clarinet and Piano was written for clarinetist Jack Brymer. This sonata begins with a heavily syncopated first movement, which makes use of repeated rhythms to build intensity. The second movement is gorgeous, with well-shaped phrasing and the occasional crunch of dissonance. The third and final movement features tri-tone tremolos, which Plane performs effortlessly. The last work on the album featuring clarinet is entitled Drifting Away and definitely provides musical imagery of drifting away. Plane adds a little shimmer of vibrato at phrase endings, providing the final touch to a magnificent recording.” International Clarinet Association March 2024
‘The Clarinet Quintet – first performed by Jack Brymer with the Hirsch quartet – is a thing of irrepressible songfulness. Harrison marries this with episodes driven with urgency and disrupted by jazzy cross-currents. This latter quality alternates with calm in an ebb-and-flow pattern. The middle movement is typically elegiac but with an ascending intensity. It is longer than other two put together and forms the coping stone for this quarter-hour work. The finale radiates a poignant Finzi-like joie de vivre.
The Sonnet is, like a few other works here, very short and is a peaceful ‘haiku’. The notes tell us that this is a love song; if so, it is a love that is generous, and does not possess or cajole. The Violin Sonatina variously dances, shivers with a knowledge of the ephemeral nature of life and is devoid of nostalgia. On the contrary, it is instinct with recollection of the loss of years part. The finale is almost twice as long as II and III together. It has a quick pace and a calypso-like rolling gait. Faggot Dance is another short jewel of a piece for flowingly Poulenc-like bassoon. It is not at all long-winded; even short pieces can be long-winded.
The Clarinet Sonata (1953) was said to be ‘gritty’; again, it’s associated with Jack Brymer. This three-movement work is played with feeling, the piano seeming to cry out. The finale is one of cartwheeling urgency which has, as a counter-balance, the lyric voice that is the natural province of the clarinet. Drifting away – an outlier, first performed in 1975, was also associated with Brymer. It is bound up in Yeats’ line “All that’s beautiful drifts away like the waters”. The brief sketch Idle Dan for cello and piano, is more of a glance than a mood picture; a breeze-blown doze in a hammock. The Piano Trio – again in three movements – is a work of light touch nostalgia. The listener will experience a seething Howellsian lyricism and a finale that evokes ringing bells with as much impact as Vaughan Williams’ “Noisy bells” and the clangour that rounds out, in tear-stained triumph, the finale of Falla’s El Amor Brujo.
The booklet essay (English only) is by Robert Plane. As we have come to expect from Resonus, both the performers and the recording quality are of the top rank. This disc offers a welcome embrace to the listener and seeker after the higher reaches of art in English music.’ Rob Barnett MusicWeb International June 2023
‘Although it has never been forgotten, the music of Pamela Harrison (1915 90) has received few recordings, and those who have heard her Viola Sonata or string-orchestral A Suite for Timothy will surely welcome this first release to be devoted to her music.
It makes sense to open with the Clarinet Quintet (1956), one of her most substantial and closely argued instrumental works, with an eloquently sustained Lento that throws into relief those tersely impulsive Allegros either side. Slighter in scale, the Violin Sonatina (1945) centres on an Andante whose circumspection ably complements its purposeful initial Allegro and quixotic final Presto. By contrast, the Clarinet Sonata (1953) puts greatest emphasis on its ominous opening Andante, followed by a pensive ‘song without words’ Lento and an Allegro of heady rhythmic verve. The most personal among these multi-movement pieces, the Piano Trio (1966) unfolds from its forthright Moderato, via a superbly wrought Lento of real emotional depth, to an Animato that rounds off the whole in effervescent fashion.
Among the shorter items, Sonnet (1962) exudes an appealing rumination and Faggot Dance (1963) is an engaging whimsy for all its brevity. Idle Dan (1959) would make for a winsome encore, as too the limpid pathos of Drifting Away (1974) that here provides a touching envoi.
The performances are adept and sympathetic and the sound and annotations are up to Resonus’s customary high standards.
More than enough chamber music remains for at least one follow-up volume (a full catalogue can be found at pamelaharrisoncomposer.co.uk), and I am looking forward to hearing more from Harrison, whose unforced and highly approachable idiom encapsulates the poise and understatement of a bygone era.’ Gramophone Magazine, April 2023
‘Here’s an important survey of Pamela Harrison (1915-1990), yet another gifted woman composer whom history has overlooked. Unsurprisingly, these are all world-premiere recordings, elegantly played, each is a lyrical, evocative and occasionally witty treat to be discovered.’ BBC Music Magazine, March 2023