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Cello Concerto Hallé Review, 1946
It is possible that the bright young people of our
time, or at any rate those queer souls who are known (strangely
enough) as the intelligentsia, would deny that composers who are
so impulsive as to allow emotional feeling an equal place with intellectual
effort when they write their music are modernists in the strict
sense of the term. If that notion prevails Mr.E.J.Moeran, whose
Violoncello Concerto was played at last night’s concert in the Houldsworth
Hall, Manchester, would no doubt gladly disavow any connection with
modern fashions in musical art. He is frankly and unashamedly prone
to spontaneous emotional feeling and it is obvious that his impulses
are never cooled down or diverted from their natural expression
by anxiety about whether he is or is not true to up-to-date style.
Yet it is no less obvious that Moeran has the modern harmonic technique
at his finger-ends and when he likes, can be as free, daring, and
ingenious in its use are most of the younger men. Whereas many composers
who during their early years lived in the midst of the romantic
movement in art reacted against the spell and sought to prove its
illusoriness, Moeran is among those richer natures who combine present-day
ideas with undisturbed attachment to and real feeling for traditional
views. The occasional complexities of the ‘Cello Concerto which
is highly original in thematical material and in the treatment of
it, offer more difficulty to the performers than to listeners. As
Mr.John F.Russell suggests in his analysis in the programme, Celtic
influences as well as meditations on the English countryside have
apparently had their effect on the work, though the composer perhaps
remains sceptical about that matter. A deeply expressive adagio
and a varied and picturesque finale are movements that will, we
think, appeal to all tastes, and both these sections of the work
show an inward cohesion which, in spite of rhapsodic passages, binds
image to image in logical sequence.
The soloist last night was Miss Peers Coetmore (Mrs.Moeran,
the composer’s wife), and she gave us a delightfully spirited performance
of the ‘cello music. The solo frequently explores the highest positions
on the strings, and once or twice a slightly doubtful intonation
was heard, but the general firmness and fluency of Miss Coetmore’s
playing were as admirable as its interpretative range. Under Mr.Barbirolli’s
sensitive direction the orchestral parts were finely suited to the
work’s texture and to the style of the soloist.
G.A.H.
[review of the first Manchester/Halle performance
of the Cello Concerto, 30 Oct.1946]
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