Recorded Works
Joseph James: After Rachmaninov
Concerto in C minor
Cinq Morceaux de Fantaisie
English Chamber Orchestra; conductor Orlando Jopling
Solo quintet: Stephanie Gonley (violin), Annabelle Meare (violin),
Jonathan Barritt (viola), Caroline Dale / Timothy Walden (’cello),
Stephen Williams (double bass)
Track listing
Concerto in C minor
(after Sergei Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto no. 2, op. 18)
1. Moderato – Allegro
2. Adagio sostenuto
3. Allegro scherzando
Cinq Morceaux de Fantaisie
(after Sergei Rachmaninov’s Cinq Morceaux de Fantaisie, op. 3)
4. Prélude in C sharp minor
5. Sérénade in B flat minor
6. Mélodie in E major
7. Elégie in E flat minor
8. Polichinelle in F sharp minor
Joseph James’s Concerto in C minor and Cinq Morceaux de Fantaisie are based on what are probably Rachmaninov’s most famous works, among the best known pieces in the whole piano repertory.
Joseph James’s technique of re-creative transcription always allows the new work to provide an analytical insight into the old one. In the Concerto, the most symphonic in structure of all the composer’s works, the original division of the music between soloist and orchestra is set aside (as is the rather conventional orchestral colouring), so that the listener has an opportunity to hear the work unfold through the rich variety of string sonorities, with individual voices matched against ensemble, while, especially in the cadenzas, the characteristic twisted mesh of arabesque passagework is carried upwards and downwards through all the instruments.
Rachmaninov’s music is often characterized by the motto from Edgar Allan Poe that the composer inscribed on his score of The Bells: ‘There is neither rest nor respite, save the quiet of the tomb’, but here we hear not only the visionary quality of the second movement of the Concerto, but also the romance and humour of ‘Sérénade’ and ‘Polichinelle’ and, throughout, the sensuous lyric genius of the great Russian musician.
First published: 2009