The centre-piece to Scottish violist Paul Coletti's enterprising recorded debut comprises the very fine Sonata by Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979). Entered for the 1919 Coolidge Competition under the pseudonym ''Anthony Trent'', it finally lost out to Bloch's Suite for Viola on the casting vote of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge herself (the wealthy patron and founder of the actual competition). Small wonder that the Sonata created such a stir on its first appearance, for it displays a most beguiling harmonic resource (the sound-world is distinctly Gallic with distant echoes of such English contemporaries as Bax and Ireland), idiomatic mastery (the viola was Clarke's own chosen instrument) and exquisite finish. Coletti and Howard perform it superbly, as they do the two remaining pieces by the same figure, the haunting Morpheus (completed the year before the sonata) and wistful Lullaby of 1909 (written when Clarke was still a pupil of Stanford at the Royal College of Music).
That other English violist/composer of note, Frank Bridge, is represented by his Pensiero and Allegro appassionato (both from 1908, and surprisingly the only two pieces he wrote for his own instrument). Vaughan Williams's Romance turned up amongst the composer's papers after his death: although only 5'40'' in length, it squeezes a wealth of incident and emotion into its compact frame. Percy Grainger's heart-warming Sussex Mummers' Christmas Carol finds these performers at their most touchingly eloquent, whilst Coletti audibly relishes the bracing sonorities of the unaccompanied Arrival Platform Humlet (a 'little hum', in case you were wondering). Bax's Legend dates from July 1929, a peak period between his Third Symphony and Winter Legends. It's a ten-minute essay of slumbering power and richly-stocked invention; indeed, as so often with this composer's instrumental output, the writing is almost orchestral in its emotional scope and remarkable range of colour. Finally, we have Britten's solo Elegy, written the day after the 16-year-old student had left Gresham's School.
As I've already intimated, the performances throughout are past praise in their sensitivity and dedication—I eagerly look forward to future offerings from this partnership (we badly need a really excellent modern account of Bax's superb Viola Sonata). Let me also add that producer Paul Spicer's annotations are altogether admirable and Tryggvi Tryggvason's engineering impeccable.'