Donald Tovey

From the start, the Teutonic heavy seriousness and traditional craftsmanship of Tovey's first concert works in the early 1900s felt somewhat old-fashioned amidst the early stages of the English Musical Renaissance, but they did find more favour on the continent. His official opus 1, the four movement Piano Trio in B minor was already composed on a large scale. It was completed in 1895 during Tovey's first term at Balliol and dedicated "to Sir Hubert Parry as the first work of a grateful pupil". There were other chamber works during this period, most of them including a piano part for Tovey to play himself: from 1900 he energetically promoted them through a series of regular chamber music performances. Early successes, receiving positive press notices, included the Piano Quintet in C, Op. 6, first performed at St James's Hall in London on 8 November 1900, and the Piano Quartet in E minor, Op. 12, played at the same hall on 21 November 1901. The Times judged him "a composer with serious aims and a very high standard", although the quartet "was written in a somewhat sombre vein". His patron Sophie Weisse helped fund his concert appearances, and also financed the publication of his epic, but not overtly virtuosic Piano Concerto in A major, Op. 15 in 1903 (though significantly it was published in Germany, not in Britain). The Concerto, with its particularly expressive F♯ minor adagio movement, was first performed on 4 November 1903 by the Queen's Hall Orchestra, conducted by Sir Henry Wood, with Tovey himself as the soloist. (Tovey also performed Mozart's Piano Concerto in C major, K.503, at the same concert). It was successfully revived in 1906 under Richter, and again in 1913 in Aachen, Germany under Fritz Busch. Weisse also funded the publication of Tovey's early chamber works between 1906 and 1913, including the two String Quartets, Opp. 23 and 24 (both composed in 1909) and his fourth and final Piano Trio in D major, Op. 27 of 1910. But the most significant new work after the Piano Concerto was another full-scale orchestral piece. The Symphony in D, Op.32, commissioned by Busch after the success of the Piano Concerto performance in Aachen, was written under great time pressure in 1913 and first performed in Aachen under Busch on 11 December 1913. A London performance (by the London Symphony Orchestra) followed on 31 May 1915. However, further performances were few. Tovey made small revisions in 1923. It was revived in Edinburgh and broadcast by the BBC on 25 February 1937 with the composer conducting the Reid Orchestra. A modern recording was not issued until 2006. From 1914 his academic career took precedence over composition, although his sense of isolation from more modernist trends may also have contributed to the silence. The Bride of Dionysus, an ambitious music drama based on the Greek legend, was begun in 1907, using a text written by his friend R. C. Trevelyan. It took over ten years for Tovey to complete it, and then it had to wait a further decade before its premiere in 1929. There was very little else after that apart from the Cello Concerto, Op. 40, begun in 1933 for Pablo Casals, and first performed by him on 22 November 1934 in Usher Hall, Edinburgh. The Times described it as "a work of considerable power and beauty", but the subsequent London performances, on 11 and 12 November 1935, were ill-prepared and the press notices were negative. Famously, in reviewing a later Queen's Hall performance and broadcast on 17 November 1937 Constant Lambert commented that "the first movement...seemed to last as long as my first term at school".

Donald Francis Tovey (1931). A Companion to Beethoven's Pianoforte Sonatas (Complete Analyses). London, The Associated Board of The R.A.M. and The R.C.M. Sir Donald F. Tovey (1936) – Normality and Freedom in Music The Romanes Lecture Delivered in The Sheldonian Theatre 20 May 1936. Oxford, At the Clarendon Press. Sir Donald F. Tovey, editor, Forty-Eight Preludes and Fugues, JS Bach, 1924, published by (British) Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music

Recordings of Tovey performing on piano were made for the National Gramophonic Society (NGS-114-117) on 6 and 11 June, and 4 September 1928, playing Tovey's conjectural completion of Bach's The Art of Fugue, Bach's Sonata No. 2 in A Major BWV1015 (1st mvt), and Beethoven's 10th Violin Sonata in G major, Op. 96 (complete) with violinist Adila Fachiri. The latter is the celebrated recording in which, on the first side after the first movement exposition, Tovey calls out, "Return to the beginning of the record; second time..." and then resumes playing, so that the listener can take the repeat or omit it, at her/his discretion. The Columbia recording of The Art of Fugue with the Roth String Quartet (1934–1935) has Tovey's conjectural completion of the work, played by Tovey on the piano, on the last 78 side. The Bride of Dionysus – Prelude and vocal extracts from the full opera Dutton Epoch CDLX 7241; also: Prelude. Toccata TOCC 0033 Cello Concerto, Op. 40 (1935). Pablo Casals, soloist, BBC Symphony Orchestra, cond. Adrian Boult, rec. 1937, Symposium 1115; also: Alice Neary, Cello, Ulster Orchestra, cond. George Vass Toccata TOCC 0038 Cello Sonata in F, Op. 4, Rebecca Rust (cello) & David Apter (piano), Marco Polo 8.223637 Chamber Music Volumes 1, 2 and 3. Piano Trios op.1, op.8, Piano Quintet, Variations on a Theme by Gluck, London Piano Trio, Ormesby Ensemble, Toccata 0068, 0226. Complete Cello Sonatas, Alice Neary, cello, Kate Gould, cello, Gretel Dowdeswell, piano Toccata 0497 Elegiac Variations for cello and piano, Op. 25, Alice Neary (cello) and Gretel Dowdeswell (piano) Toccata TOCC 0038 Piano Concerto in A, Op. 15: Steven Osborne, piano; BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, cond. Martyn Brabbins, Hyperion CDA 67023 Piano Trio, op. 27, Piano Quartet, op.12, Sonata Eroica, op.29 for solo violin, London Piano Trio. Guild GMCD 7352 Sonata Eroica, op. 29 for solo violin, Rupert Marshall-Luck EM Records EMRCD079 (2023) String Quartet in G, op.23, Aria and Variations, op.11, Tippett Quartet, Guild GMCD 7346 Symphony in D, Op. 32 (1913): Reid Orchestra, cond. Donald F. Tovey, rec. 25 February 1937. Symposium 1352; also: Malmö Opera Orchestra, cond. George Vass. Toccata TOCC 0033