Relationships: Maconchy, LeFanu & Swayne - RES10271

Relationships: Maconchy, LeFanu & Swayne

£12.99
Total playing time [75:56]

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Malu Lin (violin)
Giles Swayne (piano)

Relationships is an album formed from the various strands of familial, personal and musical connections between the composers and performers involved. Elizabeth Maconchy, was a cousin of Giles Swayne’s mother and a major influence on his musical development. Nicola LeFanu is Maconchy’s daughter and Swayne’s cousin.

Violinist Malu Lin is married to Giles Swayne, and studied with violinist Christopher Rowland, for whom Swayne composed his 1975 Duo. The programme covers nearly a century of British music for violin and piano, connecting the sound-worlds of Vaughan Williams (who taught Maconchy), Bartók and Janáček (who influenced Maconchy), and Petrassi (who taught LeFanu).

Completing this project is artwork by Malu Lin’s father, the artist Richard LIN Show Yu.

Album Booklet (PDF)

Tracklist

Elizabeth Maconchy (1907–1994)
Violin Sonata No. 2
1. Molto moderato
2. Allegro molto
3. Lento, quasi recitativo
4. Presto

Nicola LeFanu (b.1947)
Abstracts and a Frame
5. Tranquillo e lento
6. Quaver = 126
7. Poco esitando ... rapido
8. Molto moderato
9. Calmo assoluto
10. Quaver = 126
11. Molto lento
12. Tranquillo e lento

Giles Swayne (b.1946)
13. Duo, Op. 20

Elizabeth Maconchy
Violin Sonata No. 1
14. Moderato
15. Allegro scherzando
16. Lento
17. Toccata: allegro molto

Giles Swayne
18. Echo, Op. 78

Giles Swayne
19. Farewell, Op. 151

“

'The sound conveys the immediacy of the music – except in Farewell (1996), its ethereal poise an ideal leave-taking.'

- Gramophone

'This intriguing programme is all in the family: Elizabeth Maconchy was Nicola LeFanu’s mother and Giles Swayne’s cousin [...]These composers have little in common stylistically, but each offers a fertile vein of unfailing sonic imagination [...]The immediacy and sympathy between the performers and the music does shine through [...] the whole, concluding with Swayne’s eerie Farewell (2017), makes a meaty and rewarding listen.'
BBC Music Magazine

'The sound conveys the immediacy of the music – except in Farewell (1996), its ethereal poise an ideal leave-taking.'
Gramophone

'The performances throughout by Lin and Swayne are really splendid; they draw out the music’s character through subtlety and telling use of colour, always anchored by technical security. This is a disc worth hearing.'
MusicWeb International

'There is great variety, from the opening reflective solo violin in Elisabeth Maconchy’s Violin Sonata to the more exuberant rhythmic violin and piano Duo by Giles Swayne. '
Lark Reviews

Credits
© 2021 Resonus Limited
Ⓟ 2021 Resonus Limited
Catalogue No. RES10271
Recorded by Nick Graham
Assistant engineer: Naomi Graham
Tracks 1–4 & 14–17 edited by Nick Graham; other tracks edited by John Rutter
Mixing: John Rutter
Executive producer: Adam Binks
EAN: 5060262792988
Cover image: Relationships 1 by Richard LIN Show Yu (1933-2011) © Christie's Images Limited
Release date: 9 January 2021