John Blackwood McEwen - A Solway Symphony; etc. (Alasdair Mitchell)

Information

Composer: John Blackwood McEwen

• (01) A Solway Symphony
• (04) Hills o'Heather, for Cello and Orchestra
• (05) Where the Wild Thyme Blows

Moray Welsh, cello
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Alasdair Mitchell, conductor

Date: 1995
Label: Chandos
https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%209345

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Review

PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: *****

John Blackwood McEwen succeeded Alexander Mackenzie as Principal of the Royal Academy of Music in 1924. Their workload there overshadowed their creativity and their music is now largely unknown, so Chandos and Hyperion are to be commended for revealing these gems. McEwen’s A Solway Symphony, although not quite so immediately appealing as his Grey Galloway (Chandos 1993), is, nevertheless, attractive and highly atmospheric. It shows influences of Bruckner and Sibelius. Mitchell catches all the rich shifting subtleties and glowing colours of Spring Tide and Moonlight. Welsh’s warm, elegiac tone admirably suits the charming Hills o’ Heather, a plaintive, nostalgic little piece, based on Celtic folksong, that deserves a place in the cello repertoire.

Mackenzie’s music here demonstrates an impressive gift for comedy and drama; the Elgar-like nobility of Coriolanus contrasted with the wickedly ironic Twelfth Night (the pomposity of Malvolio is marvellously lampooned, while Sir Toby Belch’s music is joyfully exuberant). Mackenzie’s orchestration is highly imaginative and inventive – the Cricket sounds very realistic. Benedictus (1888), his best known piece, is sentimental and sweepingly Romantic; one can imagine it appealing to Elgar. The BBC Scottish SO plays with great panache and enthusiasm and the sound for both CDs is warm, clear and spacious.

-- Ian Lace, BBC Music Magazine

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John Blackwood McEwen (13 April 1868 – 14 June 1948) was a Scottish classical composer and educator. McEwen was born in Hawick and studied at the Glasgow University and the Royal Academy of Music. He was professor of harmony and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, London, from 1898 to 1924, and principal from 1924 to 1936. Among his students were William Alwyn, Dorothy Howell and Priaulx Rainier. McEwen's music achieved little public recognition, partly because he rarely sought it. Despite that, he nevertheless did much to further the cause of other British composers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Blackwood_McEwen

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Born in Glasgow, Alasdair Mitchell studied at Edinburgh University, The Royal Academy of Music and at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome. He was for several years a conducting pupil of Igor Markevitch, and Herbert Blomstedt at the Monte Carlo Opera and also worked in Rome and Siena with Franco Ferrara. In 1974 he won second prize in the Nicolai Malko International Conducting Competition in Copenhagen and undertook conducting engagements with various Scandinavian orchestras. Mitchell teaches conducting at Edinburgh University and at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.

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