An inviting exploration of English pastoral music
The Strad Issue: July 2025
Description: An inviting exploration of English pastoral music
Musicians: Chu-Yu Yang (violin) Eric McElroy (piano)
Works: Bliss: Violin Sonata. Finzi: Elegy. Gurney: Seven Pieces for violin and piano. Venables: Violin Sonata; Three Pieces for violin and piano
Catalogue number: SOMM RECORDINGS SOMMCD0700
This is an interesting stroll down the country byways of English music, bracketed by two works from Ian Venables, with Gerald Finzi, very early Ivor Gurney and Arthur Bliss in between. In Finzi’s 1940 Elegy violinist Chu-Yu Yang and pianist Eric McElroy are essentially gentle and lyrical, in a beautifully balanced partnership that brings out Finzi’s counterpoint as well as his melodic eloquence.
The Elegy is followed by a sequence of seven short pieces written by Gurney in 1908–9, none of them previously recorded and mostly delicate and poetic. Yang’s playing is melodically supple, sensitive to the nuances and subtleties of Gurney’s sophisticated lyricism.
Arthur Bliss wrote his Violin Sonata early in World War I. This is a more turbulent, emotionally complex work, though still rooted in the pastoral milieu. Yang captures its many twists of character, its dramatic gestures and patches of dotted dance rhythms.
Venables comes from a later generation, having been born in 1955, although stylistically he fits right in. The sad melodies of his 1989 sonata (originally for flute) are nicely shaped, with a rhythmically upbeat second movement, punctuated by passages of dolorous musing. There is more moody introspection in the Three Pieces, before some welcome energy in the closing Dance. McElroy is excellent throughout, and the recording is clear and well balanced.
TIM HOMFRAY
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