Thrilling reminders of the tragic ‘genius’ virtually shunned by the music world

Noel Mewton-Wood’s (1922-53) journey from underestimated virtuoso to present-day icon is cause for both celebration and irony. Glowing testimonials to his ‘genius’ (Sir Malcolm Sargent) from Myra Hess, Beecham, Schnabel, Bliss, Hindemith and Britten were countered by indifference from the major record labels and concert managements, a situation that doubtless contributed to his suicide at the age of 31. Behind an ebullient surface, Mewton-Wood was a romantic idealist, susceptible to depression and mood-swings. So it is hardly surprising to find the dichotomy reflected in performances which alternate a luminous poetic delicacy with a rare energy and bravura.

Among his recordings (which range from Beethoven to Tippett, Weber to Busoni), the Bliss Concerto stands as a monument to an outsize personality. Not even Solomon’s 1939 world première performance (invaluable, see above) or his 1943 recording approaches such heroic virtuosity. The balance, too, is much better, so that the Allegro’s opening, with its defiant burst of splendour, or the massive cadenza, are overwhelming in their impact. Today’s audiences may not be attuned to such thunderous rhetoric, but even they may find their misgivings swept aside by Mewton-Wood’s force of nature.

The Bliss (appearing on CD for the first time) is the star attraction here, but its companion concertos are scarcely less commanding, the Stravinsky’s witty neo-classicism (for the cautious editors of The Record Guide, ‘like Bach through a distorting mirror’) making an invigorating contrast to Bliss’s neo-romanticism. The recordings have come up remarkably well. The Bliss could well rank among the most thrilling of all virtuoso concerto discs.

After a Mewton-Wood performance of Hindemith’s Ludus Tonalis, Dame Myra Hess exclaimed: ‘The boy is truly remarkable, and what shall he be like at 40-odd?’ Tragically, her question was never to be answered. This BMS disc is a worthy commemoration of the 50th anniversary of his death.

Bryce Morrison

(From: Gramophone, November 2003)