Veronica Henderson - cello Elizabeth Mucha - piano
Hamish MacCunn (1868 – 1916)
Three Romantic Pieces
L’Espérance
Sérénade
Rêve d’Amour
John Blackwood McEwan (1868 – 1948)
Hill’s O’ Heather (A Retrospect)
Neil Mackay (1947 – 2023)
Scena for cello and piano
Geraldine Mucha (1917 – 2012)
For Erika
Isobel Dunlop (1901 – 1975)
Suite
Prelude: Conversation
Dance
Elegy
We are delighted to be performing a programme of Scottish cello and piano music in the very heart of Edinburgh at St Giles Cathedral. Our recital brings together works by composers who, while all connected with Scotland, followed very individual paths through life. Hamish MacCunn and John Blackwood McEwan, born in the same year, both pursued further musical training in London and would occupy a prominent place within the city’s establishment in later years. Nevertheless, both composers remained connected with their Scottish roots. MacCunn’s early work, The Land of the Mountain and Flood, which the writer and critic George Bernard Shaw described as ‘a charming Scotch overture that carries you over the hills and far away’ is still heard at concerts nowadays. The Three Romantic Pieces composed in 1894 that open our programme look more to Europe though for musical inspiration: the Sérénade has the lilting character of a barcarolle while L’Espérance and Rêve d’Amour demonstrate McCunn’s gift for melody with harmonies that recall the great Romantic composers such as Schumann and Liszt.
John Blackwood McEwen also lived and worked in London for much of his life and became the Principal of the Royal Academy of Music from 1924 to 1936. His works have been described as showing influences of the French Romantics such as Chausson as well as drawing on the rich harmonic language of composers such as Strauss and Scriabin. Nevertheless, many compositions in his extensive body of work hearken back to his Scottish roots both in title and atmosphere. Hills o’ Heather (A Retrospect) composed in 1918 is a nostalgic rhapsody, owing more to French impressionism with its simpler harmonic language, evoking misty and heather clad hills in the Scottish Highlands.
The Edinburgh-born composer Neil Mackay remained closely connected to his roots. After studying at Edinburgh University, he devoted much of his career to education, writing string music and tutor books alongside teaching music and history at the Edinburgh Rudolf Steiner School. He also made an important contribution to the promotion of Scottish music through his edition of songs by composer Francis George Scott. Scena was privately commissioned in 1982 and only rediscovered in 2023 after Mackay’s death. This is a taut gritty twelve-tone work which alternates cleverly constructed slow and fast dramatic dialogues between the two instruments.
Like Mackay, Edinburgh born Isobel Dunlop remained in Scotland for her studies and later joined the Scottish Arts Council (1943 - 1948). She set up the Saltire Music Group under the umbrella of the Saltire Society, which, to this day, promotes understanding of Scottish culture and heritage. The titles of the three pieces in her Suite, Prelude:Conversation, Dance, and Elegy, capture perfectly the intent of the composition.
The most dramatic life story though is that of Geraldine Mucha (née Thomson). Born in London, the only child of Marcus Thomson from Glasgow, she married the Czech writer, Jiří Mucha (son of the painter Alphonse Mucha) in 1942. After the war, they settled in Prague. From 1950-1953, Jiří was imprisoned by the Communist Party for his wartime collaboration with the Allies during which time Geraldine lived on a small holding in the Czech countryside. In the 60s, the Muchas were closely involved in promoting the work of Jiří’s father, Alphonse Mucha. However, owing to the travel restrictions imposed by the Iron Curtain, Geraldine moved to Scotland to facilitate the organisation of exhibitions abroad. Throughout all of this, Geraldine was active as a composer.
For Erika, the short piece we will be performing by Geraldine Mucha has a very charming back story. Erika Neisner was the wife of the Austrian ambassador to Prague in the 1990s. They became good friends as the Austrian Residence was in the next street to Geraldine's home. Erika would frequently send Geraldine fresh Sacher torte from Vienna much to her delight! The piece was written as a gift in 2007.