Nicholas Maw (1935-2009)
Violin Concerto
Joshua Bell violin
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Sir Roger Norrington
Sony Classical 1999
flac, cue, log, scans
Maw’s Violin Concerto was written with Joshua Bell specifically in mind in 1993; the recording followed in September 1996. In the very enthusiastic sleeve-notes – I’m not sure how Maw feels about being described as a “genius” – great play is made of the work in relation to the Brahms Violin Concerto. Certainly it has a complex romantic affiliation but the composers’ names that occurred to me were those of Prokofiev and Walton. Not that Maw could be remotely taken to be either of them – but in its cultivation of an almost Italianate lyricism it does summon up the memory of Walton’s Mediterranean work and in its fusion of melodic beauty and scherzo drama it must pay at least oblique, tangential historical homage to Prokofiev.
The Concerto is cast in four movements. It opens with ruminative slowness but then opens out into a flourishing, rich and luminous sound world, bedecked by manifold orchestral and solo felicities; those little orchestral lurches toward the end for instance. The second movement is indeed Walton-like in its vivacity but Maw’s control of lingering lyricism, finely woven into the work’s fabric, ensures seamless warmth from the current-swell of dynamism that he generates. The lodestones here are Prokofiev and Barber but they’re securely absorbed into Maw’s lyric modernist world. The powerful cadential passage over a sustained orchestral chord is followed by a muted upwards drift into orchestral nothingness, a Cherubini-like stroke of translucent and mysterious beauty.
Maw’s predilection for major chords – the C major especially – permeates the third movement. Harmonies are richly complex and there are elements of post-impressionism in the writing, as well glimmers of Berg; but over and above such composer-spotting moments, which are essentially incidental, is the sense of luminous quiet, the rapture, the specific and yet endless personal landscape that Maw evokes. And when he unleashes the finale it comes brimful with tunes, vibrant and exciting, richly orchestrated.
Throughout Bell plays with the romantic ardour that Maw identified – and so admires – in him. His playing manages to balance scrupulous cleanliness of attack with tonal warmth and pliant phrasing. Norrington marshals the LPO in assured, colouristically aware fashion and the recording does full justice to the enterprise.
The Maw is a concerto that embraces its historical lineage without being shackled by it. If you admire the Berg, Barber, Walton and Prokofiev concertos, and like orchestration that is both luminous and pulsing then this is the work for you.(MusicWeb review)
You can read more reviews here
Little Concert
Shahnama
Nicholas Daniel oboe
Oxford Bach Choir
BBC Concert Orchestra
Britten Sinfonia
Nicholas Cleobury
ASV 1999
Junto al Generalife
A. Tansman
Scriabin Variations
N. Maw
Music of Memory
M. Ponce
Sonata Romántica
Marcyn Dylla guitar
Naxos 2008
La Vita Nuova
Ghost Dances
Roman Canticle
20th Century Consort
Carmen Pelton soprano
William Sharp baritone
Christopher Kendall
ASV 1997![]()
Nicholas Maw
Scenes and Arias
Anthony Milner
Roman Spring
Salutatio Angelica
Jane Manning soprano
BBC SO - Norman Del Mar
London Sinfonietta - David Atherton
Recorded 1969 and 1975
Lyrita 2007
Sonata Notturna
Life Studies
Raphael Wallfisch cello
English String Orchestra
William Boughton
Nimbus 1996
N. Maw
String Quartet No. 3
B. Britten
String Quartet No. 3
Three Divertimenti
The Coull Quartet
Somm Celeste 2007
J. Gardner Theme and Variatios for brass quartet
J. Addison Divertimento for brass quartet
S. Dodgson Sonata for brass quintet
English Chamber Orchestra
Norman Del Mar
Tje Philip Jones Brass Ensemble
Recorded 1971 and 1975
Lyrita 2008
N. Maw
Solo Violin Sonata
A.Anderson
Casting Ecstatic
M. Boykan
Sonata for Solo Violin
Arthur Kreiger
Keeping Company
Curtis Macomber violin
CRI 2007
A. Bax Sonata for Flute and Harp
S. Dodgson Duo
H.Harty In Ireland
W. Alwyn Naiades
N. Maw Night Thoughts
Emily Beynon flute
Catherine Beynon harp
Recorded 1994
Metier 2012
N. Maw American Games
A. Schoenberg Theme and Variations
Ch. Cushing Angel Camp
F. Schmitt Dionysiaques
N. Skalkottas Greek Dances
United States Marine Band
Timothy Foley
Self Released 1997
N. Maw
Life Studies
R. Rodney Bennett
Spells
Academy of Saint-Martin-in-the-Fields
Neville Marriner
Philharmonia Orchestra
David Willcocks
Original release Argo 1978
Contimuum 1991
digital download, covers and booklets (except the Nimbus and ASV discs)