Martin Ash, a free-lance violist/violinist in the London area who has previously provided us these insightful blog posts about Laura Maddelena Lombardini (here and here), was in thick of the recent world premiere performance of Imogen Holst’s Violin Concerto (1935), as section violist. So here is his report about the premiere of this work composed 89 years ago! Despite the thick biography Imogen Holst: A Life in Music, edited by Christopher Grogan, much of her music remains unknown, unexplored and unavailable. So hearty applause to violinst Midori Komachi for her push to make the edition and the concert happen!
Midori Komachi; Imogen Holst
On Sunday, November 24, soloist Midori Komachi, conductor Adrian Brown and his Elgar Sinfonia of London performed Imogen Holst’s Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra, in what is believed to be the first performance since the work’s premiere at a concert for charitable donors in 1935, and thus first ever publicly accessible performance of the work. The program was a celebration of Adrian Brown’s 75th birthday. He introduced the work with some informal comments – he had his own vivid memories of “Imo” (as everyone called her), first as a schoolboy violinist and much later as professional leader/concertmaster for Imogen as conductor. He recalled her being a gloriously eccentric figure, who tended to practically dance while conducting, whose podium manner would have matched the sprightly folk dance character of the outer movements of this piece entirely (she did indeed conduct the private 1935 premiere).
The concerto takes most of its thematic material from Irish traditional tunes, and in the outer movements these are of the fast dance types (compound-time jigs and slip jigs, duple-time reels) rather than songs. Some of the sound-world undeniably evokes Holst senior’s St Paul’s Suite, including a sympathetic sensitivity to the harmonic possibilities of distinctively British modal melodies, but the generation later and the look across the Irish Sea are combined with a very lively forward energy and transparent, linear writing that makes every note of great importance.
Imogen Holst conducting
The piece is in three movements, fast-slow-fast, but is not of the character of a Romantic concerto. The soloist has to dance fleetly over the whole range of the violin without appearing to be working hard at all; Komachi was brilliantly adept at this. The violin is not given typical virtuosic figuration, and while there are unaccompanied sections they are thematic rather than rhapsodic, with no real cadenzas. One might observe that the structure and the relationship between soloist and orchestra were more modelled on Baroque concerti rather than 19th-century ones (though this should not suggest that the work sounds anything like a baroque violin concerto!)
The Holst Society commissioned an edition of the concerto, which was published this year by Faber in the UK and used for this performance. Komachi plans a recording, and a tour if funding can be secured (a perpetual problem with re-introducing unknown and neglected repertoire). Her energetic performance, and especially the whirligig ending, drew rapturous applause from a capacity audience on Sunday. The piece has immediate charm and appeal rarely found in mid-20th-century music, and its demands on the orchestral players are more of ensemble, precision and speed of execution rather than advanced technique. As Midori Komachi wrote in the program note, “This piece powerfully reflects her (Holst’s) belief that the concerto is not just a display of virtuosity; it is a dynamic ensemble work with the power to bring communities together and inspire people from all walks of life.”
It is to be hoped that the availability of the edited score and rental parts (Faber encourages hiring through Zinfonia) and an exhilarating soloist advocating for the piece will lead to it being performed widely in the near future.