Rutland Boughton: Of Delights and Passions – English Piano Trio

Boughton, Rutland (1878-1960)

Trio for Violin, Violoncello and Pianoforte

Sonata in D major for Violin and Pianoforte

Sonata for Violoncello and Pianoforte

Celtic Prelude (The Land of Heart’s Desire) for Violin, Violoncello and Pianoforte

Winter Sun for Violin and Pianoforte

EM Records is delighted to announce its first disc set of chamber works by the British composer, Rutland Boughton (1878-1960), performed by the renowned English Piano Trio.

The disc includes the world premiere recordings of the Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano (1948), the Sonata in D major for Violin and Piano (1921), the Sonata for Cello and Piano (1948), and Winter Sun (1932).

Often regarded as the composer who tried to create Britain’s first “English Bayreuth”, Boughton is best remembered today for his highly successful Festivals at Glastonbury (1914-1926) and for his record-breaking Celtic opera The Immortal Hour. At the height of his career, Boughton became hugely popular surpassing even his rivals and friends Holst and Vaughan Williams.

Apart from his two successful early string quartets and his oboe works, composed for his talented daughter Joyance, Rutland Boughton is not generally recognised for his chamber music of which there are over 20 individual pieces. Of these, it is perhaps the Sonata in D major for Violin and Piano of 1921 – now recorded here for the first time by English Piano Trio members, Jane Faukner and Timothy Ravenscroft – that has been heard in public in recent times.

The recording also includes Boughton’s unknown Sonata for ‘Cello and Pianoforte which was completed in 1948, and his Trio for Violin, ‘Cello and Piano (1948) that has remained unperformed for over 70 years until it was included in a lunchtime recital given by the English Piano Trio at the composer’s birthplace, Aylesbury, in 2019. It is evident the English Piano Trio enjoy delivering this unique and wonderful piece.

The disc is completed by the recording of two short delightful published works; a sketch for violin and piano – Winter Sun – which Boughton wrote in 1932, and an earlier piano trio, Celtic Prelude, completed in 1917 when the composer was in military service.

The recording was instigated and sponsored by the composer’s grandson, Ian Rutland Boughton, who inspired the English Piano Trio to bring this project to fruition.