Kapustin

Gaubert

Schumann

Borne

Farrenc

Piazzolla

MANUEL ENSEMBLEAnna Stokes flute Louisa Tuck cello John Reid piano

Anna Stokes founded the Emanuel Ensemble in 2001 which has since gone on to perform in recitalsat the Purcell Room’s ‘Fresh’ concert series, the Wigmore Hall, St Martin-In-The Fields, KensingtonPalace, St James’s Palace, National Gallery, V & A Museum, Conway Hall, Leeds International Festival,Schubert Society of Britain, Lansdowne Club, Champs Hill, Cadogan Hall, Villa D’este (Lake Como) andfor numerous UK Concert Societies.

The Emanuel Ensemble is dedicated to exploring music old and new, focusing predominantly on worksfor combinations of flute, cello & piano and flute, violin, viola & cello.

www.emanuelensemble.co.uk

Just as Astor Piazzolla stood to the Tango in Argentina, so in a sense does theRussian, Ukrainian-born Nikolai Kapustin stand to Jazz in Russia, speaking jazz as hisnatural language and seeking to extend its role in both popular and concert music.Kapustin was born in Gorlovka, Ukraine in 1937 and studied piano at the MoscowConservatory with the great Alexander Goldenweiser (friend of Scriabin, Rachmaninovand Tolstoy), graduating from his class in 1961. Though his training was thorough andtraditional in the Russian classical manner, Kapustin had been interested in jazz fromhis teens, and already in the 1950s he had formed a jazz quintet, and played with YuriSaulsky’s Central Artists’ Club Big Band in Moscow. Later, he toured throughout theUSSR with the Oleg Lundstrem Jazz Orchestra. He has been a prolific composer,principally for solo piano though there are also concertos, orchestral works andchamber music. Despite the obvious (and infectious) jazzy feel of his music, Kapustinviews himself as a composer rather than a jazz musician. He is on record as saying ‘Iwas never a jazz musician. I never tried to be a real jazz pianist, but I had to do itbecause of the composing. I’m not interested in improvisation – and what is a jazzmusician without improvisation? All my improvisations are written out, of course, sothey became much better; it improved them.’ Kapustin’s works, then, though they mayoccasionally sound like improvisations, are fully notated, fully developed compositionsin his own distinctive jazz style, which distils elements from such jazz greats as ArtTatum, Oscar Peterson, Errol Garner, with whom Kapustin feels a close affinity.

Kapustin wrote his Trio for flute, cello and piano, Op.86 in 1998: it was at that timethe first chamber work he had written for more than two players, and has sincebecome one of his most popular works outside of his solo piano output. There arethree movements. The first is an energetic affair, seemingly improvisatory but in factworking out its themes and motifs both thoroughly and fantastically, with walkingbasses, hypnotic ostinatos and also excursions and side-turnings that give all the

SELECTED WORKS FOR FLUTE, CELLO AND PIANO

Emanuel Ensemble: Anna Stokes - flute Louisa Tuck - ‘cello John Reid - pianoRecorded in the Music Room, Champs Hill, West Sussex, 17th & 18th August 2010 [01–06, 08–12]; 22nd May 2011 [07]Produced and Engineered by Alexander Van Ingen Edited by Dave RowellMixed & Mastered by Alexander Van Ingen all for Six Music Productions (www.sixmp.net)Cover image: “Trail”, a part of the Paintings In Hospitals collection, by Helen Lindon, www.helenlindon.com

NIKOLAI KAPUSTIN Trio, Op.86

01 i Allegro molto02 ii Andante03 iii Allegro giocoso

04 PHILIPPE GAUBERTPièce Romantique

ROBERT SCHUMANNAdagio and Allegro in A flat major, Op.70

05 i Adagio06 ii Allegro

FRANÇOIS BORNE 07 Fantaisie Brillante sur Carmen

LOUISE FARRENC Trio Op.45 for Flute (or violin), Cello & Piano

08 i Allegro deciso - Più moderato ed espressivo09 ii Andante10 iii Scherzo11 iv Finale - Presto

ASTOR PIAZZOLLA12 La Muerte del Ángel

MANUEL ENSEMBLEAnna Stokes, Louisa Tuck, John Reid

The romantic ambience of the music of Robert Schumann (1810–1856) makes astriking contrast to Kapustin’s jazz cool. His Adagio and Allegro in A flat major, Op.70,was in fact conceived for horn and piano – and specifically the more agile valved horn,of which Schumann was an early champion, rather than the natural horn of Waldhornthat was still in use when he wrote his work (and which would still be much favouredby Schumann’s younger contemporary Brahms). This is one of a cluster of works forwind instruments written in 1849. At this time Schumann had the idea of composingsubstantial works of so-called Hausmusik that amateur players could use to furthertheir skills at home, though the Adagio and Allegro presupposes an extremely skilledamateur: this is a notable display-piece whose range of chromatic notes shows it wasintended from the first for the newer type of horn. As was his practice with his otherwind-instrument pieces, Schumann published alternative versions for strings, eitherviolin, viola or cello with piano: it is the last we hear on this disc.

Requiring considerable virtuosity in its concluding portion, and the ability to projectdreamy Romantic feeling in its opening (the piece was originally entitled Romanza undAllegro), this is a perfect two-part structure, almost a Schumann trademark, of a kindwhich he explored throughout his instrumental œuvre. The Adagio (actually markedLangsam, mit innigen Ausdruck) may remind us of one of Schumann’s more wistfulsongs, and requires stamina to sustain the lyrical phrases. The Allegro (actually markedRasch und feurig) is a vigorous rondo, impulsive and indeed fiery in mood, using thefull range of the instrument in rapid figuration, which alternates this vivacious musicwith slower, more lyrical episodes, notably an Etwas ruhiger in B major that developmotifs first heard in the Adagio, thus binding the diptych into a unity.

The extended, bravura Fantaisie Brillante on themes from Bizet’s Carmen was composedin 1900 by the flautist and composer François Borne (1840–1920), who was for many

instruments solo spots and the chance to assume various characters. The languidlynostalgic opening of the central slow movement introduces a theme which remains theprincipal focus of the music, varied in turn by all three instruments; after a slightlyfaster and more capricious central section, the theme returns for further romantictreatment before the end. The finale is a breezy, highly rhythmic workout for all threeplayers, containing the most virtuosic writing in the work and rounding it off with aninsouciant and irresistible display of animal vitality.

‘His music is neo-classic, but threatened with modernism’, was the curious commentthat the critic André Coeuroy applied to Fauré’s younger contemporary PhilippeGaubert (1879–1941). Gaubert was a refined and civilized member of the Impressionistmovement in France who is chiefly remembered – though he wrote in many genres – byhis compositions for the flute, his own instrument: at the Paris Conservatoire in the1890s he studied with the legendary flautist Paul Taffanel (1844–1908) and during hiscareer served as principal flautist in several of the Paris orchestras – eventuallybecoming, like Taffanel, Professor of Flute at the Paris Conservatoire.

The Pièce Romantique was composed in 1904 and is redolent of the lyric charm thatwas Gaubert’s speciality, in music that may remind us at one moment of Fauré, at thenext of Debussy, and yet retains a certain politesse of its own. Solo cello, against achordal piano accompaniment, gives out the soulful main theme. The melody is takenup by the flute and extended in duet with the cello, the music rising to an ecstatic,pastoral climax. The flute is to the fore in the central episode, which has something of the air of an antique dance. The cello is the subordinate partner and abetter here,but it leads us, via a little mini-cadenza, into a brief, elaborated and embellishedreturn of the opening theme before the movement dies away in a mood of eventidecontentment.

As her music is being progressively rediscovered, it begins to look as though LouiseFarrenc (1804–1875) was the most important woman composer of the first half of the19th century. However admirable the creative gifts of Clara Schumann and FannyMendelssohn, the fact remains that the lady from Paris was more productive, moreambitious, worked on a larger scale and in a wider range of genres, and wrote musicof comparable quality that scintillates with life and wit. Perhaps there is nothing inher output that can convey the pathos and emotional depth of, for instance, some ofClara Schumann’s late Romanzen. But on the other hand Clara wrote no symphonies(Farrenc wrote two), and her sole (superb) Piano Trio stands as her only concertedchamber piece, while Farrenc turns out to have adorned the genre with several worksof similar size and importance. She was clearly a cultured artist – and a fortunateone, married to a music publisher. Like her elder contemporary and compatriot GeorgeOnslow, with whom she shares some stylistic characteristics, Farrenc was a post-classical composer whose forms and phraseology generally hark back to the age ofBeethoven, if not necessarily to Beethoven himself. Thus the E minor Trio, forexample, is in one sense a very ‘old-fashioned’ work for its time. But since we haveleft its time far behind it is likely to appeal on other grounds than up-to-dateness.Farrenc had an individual sensibility, adeptly balancing sentiment and seriousness,and her craftsmanship borders on the masterly. Perfectly successful in her own day,and a respected editor of early music as well as Professor of Piano at the ParisConservatoire from 1842, she seems to have been almost immediately forgotten afterher death, and it’s heartening that her œuvre is now being revived.

Louise Farrenc’s Trio in E minor, Op.45 for flute, cello and piano, composed during1861–2, was her last chamber work. She dedicated it to the flautist Louis Dorus(1812–1890), who had become Professor of Flute at the Paris Conservatoire a shortwhile before, in 1860. (It was Dorus who taught Taffanel, who taught Gaubert.)

years principal flautist in the orchestra of the Grand Theatre at Bordeaux, eventuallybecoming professor of flute in the Conservatoire at Toulouse. Borne devoted much ofhis time to developing the design of the flute, writing articles to publicize hisinnovations; he had a share in the invention of many devices to improve the Boehm-system flute still in use today, including the split-E mechanism found on many modernflutes. Borne composed several fantasies on themes from popular operas, of which theCarmen fantasy is by far the best known. The work exploits the entire range of theflute, in accordance with Borne’s aim of writing pieces that demonstrated what theinstrument was capable of, while challenging the technique and expressive abilities ofthe performer. The Fantaisie Brillante uses several of the best-known themes fromCarmen and creates variations on these motifs, highlighting both musical andtechnical aspects of flute performance. Perhaps with his tongue in his cheek at times,Borne produces almost a synopsis of Bizet’s opera, with the central evocation of thecelebrated Habanera, extended in increasingly flashy variations, as an undoubtedhigh-point, in a composition perhaps essentially intended for the salon but alsoenjoyable for its feats of instrumental transformation and metamorphosis.

Borne begins with the music of Carmen’s first entrance in the opera. A plunge into anominous C minor, with dramatic piano tremolo writing, introduces the ‘Fate’ themefrom the Act I Prelude. As the music develops we encounter a brief reference to thechorus in Act I where soldiers and townspeople greet the appearance of Carmen. Theflute then sings the famous Habanera theme, the piano imitating the originalorchestral setting, and the bravura variations follow. These build up the excitement forthe ‘Gypsy Dance’ from Act II of the opera. This too is treated to brilliant variationsand then, just as the work seems to be drawing to an end, the minor key is replacedby the major with a triumphant statement of the one famous theme so far unheard,the ‘Toreador Song’, which becomes the basis for a finale of vertiginous bravura.

Opening with a very brief Allegro deciso fanfare, the first movement settles down, Piùmoderato ed espressivo, to a full classical sonata form (with exposition repeat),superbly written for all three instruments and showing Farrenc’s considerablecontrapuntal artistry in its discreet touches of canon. The vigorous developmentsection puts the themes through their paces, with a moment of lyrical pathos as theflute, unaccompanied, leads into the recapitulation and the stormy coda. The Andanteslow movement, in C major, opens as if a sentimental romance for the flute over aplacid accompaniment. But a gruff and stormy interruption, led off by cello and pianoplunges us into C minor; the thundery weather recedes, however, and the cello takesover the songful main theme with delicate triplet decoration from the flute. Theelegiac final bars provide the merest hint of the storm clouds from earlier.

A restless and swift-moving Scherzo, Vivace, returns us to E minor, with urgentrhythmic writing for all three players. The trio section moves to E major for a suavelylyrical cello tune, taken up by the flute. The Scherzo returns da capo in the minor, butthe movement diverts into the major for a reminder of the trio section’s melody beforea curt dismissal. The Presto finale starts off with a rapid, running flute theme in evenquavers, immediately adopted by the piano as a background to other figures. Thiseven-quaver chatter provides much of the motive power for the movement, thoughFarrenc also produces a blithe transition theme and a highly expressive second subjectof real pathos led off by the cello and developing into a passionate duet with theflute. The rest of the movement develops these different elements in a spirited showof inventiveness and effervescent spirits, turning soon to E major and bringing theproceedings to an end in high good humour.

Astor Piazzolla (1921–1992) enshrines the intimate relations of popular and classicalin Argentinian concert music. As a bandoneón virtuoso and band-leader he became

one of the most original exponents of the tango, Latin America’s most celebrateddance; at the same time he longed to write symphonic and chamber works. He studiedwith Alberto Ginastera in Buenos Aires and Nadia Boulanger in Paris and eventually,despite much opposition, effected a fusion of classical concert forms with the sinuousrhythm and passion of tango. Enormously prolific (over 1000 pieces!), with worksranging from concertos and orchestral suites to a multitude of dance numbers,Piazzolla was truly to the tango what Johann Strauss II was to the waltz.

In 1962 Piazzolla composed the incidental music for El Tango del Ángel, a theatrepiece by Alberto Rodriguez Nuñoz. The play is a spiritual drama in which an angelarrives in a poor, run-down neighborhood of Buenos Aires on a mission to heal thespirits of its inhabitants – but instead is killed in a vicious knife-fight with a localvillain. The climax of the play, and of Piazzolla’s music, is La muerte del Ángel (TheDeath of the Angel) – a piece that Piazzolla performed many times in his concerts inits original form for his quintet (bandoneón, violin, piano and acoustic and electricbass), and which he and others have arranged for a multitude of different ensembles.We hear it here as a trio for flute, cello and piano. This remarkable piece is a three-voice fugue based on a jagged, aggressive theme that is dissonantly bandied aboutamong the three instruments. The furious activity stills for a slower, sinuous centralsection that has an air of dark sentimentality. The fugue theme resumes – though thewriting is no longer strictly fugal – and comes to a decisive, thrusting close.

Notes g 2011 by Malcolm MacDonald

ANNA STOKES

Anna Stokes is an established orchestral and chamber musician. She has worked withnumerous orchestras including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal ScottishNational Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Northern Sinfonia, Brandenburg Sinfonia,London Concert Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Arts Symphonic. Shehas also toured the UK extensively with singers Russell Watson and Aled Jones and hasperformed as part of the Queen’s Jubilee Celebrations and Investitures at BuckinghamPalace and Windsor Castle.

As a soloist, Anna has given performances for the Qatar Foundation in Doha, at theBeethovenhaus in Bonn, the Cheltenham International Festival, for UK concert societiesand performed concertos and solo works by Bach, Chaminade, Mozart, Quantz, Reineckeand Rouse. In 2006–2008 she was selected to participate in the Sir James GalwayInternational Masterclass series and in 2007 was awarded a gold Nagahara headjoint for‘Best Performer’ by popular vote. Anna has featured on CD releases with artists includingAled Jones, Isabel ‘The Choirgirl’ and Camilla Kerslake.

Awards include the Marc Rich Scholarship for Artistic Achievement, Haynes InternationalFlute Competition Prize Winner (2007), LPO ‘Future Firsts’ (2006–7) Solti Foundation andEMI Sound Foundation. Anna has also given workshops in the UK, Hong Kong and Qatar.

Anna began studying the flute with Athanasios Kalimeris, and was subsequently awardeda scholarship to the Purcell School of Music where she learnt with Anna Pope for fiveyears. She was later awarded a Foundation Scholarship to the Royal College of Musicwhere she studied with Susan Milan and Stewart McIlwham, graduating in 2004 withFirst Class Honour; since when she has received private tuition from Celia Chambers andcoaching from a number of flautists including Sir James Galway, Paul Edmund Davies,Susan Thomas, Kenneth Smith and Sebastian Bell as well the composer, Jindrich Feld.

Anna plays on a Brannen-Cooper flute that was awarded to her by the Foundation forSport and the Arts.

www.annastokes.com

BIOGRAPHIES

LOUISA TUCK

Since her appointment as Section Leader: Cello at the Northern Sinfonia in 2007,Louisa Tuck has established herself as one of the most sought-after young chambermusicians and guest principal cellists in the UK. She is a regular guest leader withthe Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (which hasincluded their complete Proms season), Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, RoyalPhilharmonic Orchestra and The John Wilson Orchestra.

Louisa has recorded as a soloist with Naxos and Virgin Classics and this disc marksher first solo and chamber music recording with Champs Hill Records. As a soloistshe has appeared at the Wigmore Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Spoleto Festival (Italy),Spitalfields, Soundwaves, IMAI, and the Norfolk & Norwich and Chipping CamdenFestivals.

Louisa was featured on a DVD of masterclasses at the Wigmore Hall given by theveteran cellist Bernard Greenhouse. Other recent performances and projects haveincluded Hindemith Kammermusik in London’s St. Martins-in-the-Fields andperformances of Stravinsky, Dutilleux and Colleridge-Taylor with the Nash Ensemble.She has broadcast live on BBC Radio Two, Three, Four and Classic FM, and isregularly invited to perform in the USA at the International Musical Arts Institutechamber music festival.

Having studied with Paul Watkins and Philip Sheppard at the Royal Academy ofMusic, Louisa was recently made an ARAM there. She has received awards from theMusicians Benevolent Fund and the Countess of Munster Trust, and gratefullyacknowledges Mark Ptashne’s generous support throughout her career.

She plays on a rare Italian cello dated 1752 made by Jacobus Cordanus.

www.louisatuck.com

photo: Carla Ree

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photo: B

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JOHN REID

John Reid's career to date has shown him to be a pianist of notable versatility andrange, with wide experience as an outstanding chamber musician, song accompanist,soloist and exponent of new music.

A regular visitor to festivals and music clubs across the UK, in recital he has workedwith artists including singers Joan Rodgers, Dame Felicity Lott, Lucy Crowe, NicholasMulroy, William Berger and Diana Moore; instrumentalists Thomas Gould, AdamWalker, Alexander Baillie, Alison Balsom, Gemma Rosefield, Jennifer Pike, TimothyOrpen, Sarah Williamson, Oliver Coates and William Bennett; as well as with groupsincluding the Barbirolli Quartet, the Emanuel Ensemble, the Aurora Wind Ensembleand members of the Northern Sinfonia and the Britten Sinfonia. He has given recitalsat the major London venues, Bridgewater Hall, The Sage Centre (Gateshead), theConcertgebouw Amsterdam and across Europe.

John has worked with contemporary chamber music groups Radius and the OssianEnsemble, giving over fifteen first performances, and working with composersincluding Martin Suckling, Errollyn Wallen, Nico Muhly, Emily Hall and members of theCamberwell Composers Collective. He is a principal of the Aurora Orchestra, withwhom he has appeared at the BBC Proms and the Proms Plus series.

John Reid studied at Clare College, Cambridge and at the Royal Academy of Musicwith Michael Dussek. He has also taken lessons in song interpretation with MalcolmMartineau and Rudolf Jansen and at the Britten-Pears School. He was a recipient ofthe Gerald Moore Award and the Kathleen Ferrier and Maggie Teyte pianist prizes, andhe is now an Associate of the RAM.

www.johnreidpiano.com

The Emanuel Ensemble would like to thank all the people who have been instrumental in making this CDpossible. In particular, we would like to thank David and Mary Bowerman for their unending support andgenerosity in making this disc possible, Alexander Van Ingen (Producer), Helen Lindon for her beautifulartwork for the CD cover and Sui-Leung Chai (photographer). Anna would like to extend her personal thanksto Lisa Friend for her invaluable support and advice in the making of this CD.