Further Reading
12th July 2024
Presto Music are excited to announce that, in collaboration with Nimbus Music Publishing, we now offer a wide selection of sheet music by Rebecca Clarke. Find out more.
This is the first publication of Rhapsody as anauthorised Performing Edition. Pianist John Yorkmeticulously edited the work whilst for the first timehaving access to the full colour manuscript (held by theLibrary of Congress) showing all the intricate markingsand comments by Clarke, Mukle and Hess. Significantcontributions were also made by cellists Lionel Handyand Raphael Wallfish. Christopher Johnson, Clark'sexecutor, has overseen the entire project and providedinvaluable supporting documents in the form of diaryentries and correspondence from the time of Rhapsodiesfirst performance. Christopher's stewardship of thispartnership has delivered the definitive publication ofarguably the most important cello work of the 20thcentury. ebecca Clarke’s Rhapsody, for ‘cello and piano wascommissioned by the renowned American patronessElizabeth Sprague Coolidge for her 1923 BerkshireFestival, where it was to be premiered by the greatEnglish cellist May Mukle, Clarke’s best friend andmost frequent collaborator. The Rhapsody isexceptional among Clarke’s works in virtually everyway, it is one of her longest compositions; it cost hermore time and trouble than any of the others; it was theonly commission she ever accepted. The premiere wasscheduled for September 29, at Mrs. Coolidge’sspecially-built “Music Temple” in Pittsfield,Massachusetts, with Myra Hess as pianist. Leading up to the premiere Clarke spent severaldays “fussing over the last corrections,” and madecuts, “as it is too long.” Once Mukle and Hess arrived,the three of them started going over the piece and itwas clear that it needed “many alterations“. Verydepressed about it,” Clarke wrote, “Myra & May had afour-hour sitting at my piece, & some of which I wasallowed to assist.” The premiere took place on themorning of the 29th: “Very well received, but not likedby many, who thought it too long & gloomy. The manuscript score and part she left with Mrs.Coolidge made their way, with the rest of the CoolidgeCollection, to the Library of Congress, in Washington,D.C., where they may be examined today, with all theirbattle-scars still in place. Clarke remained ambivalentabout the piece for the rest of her life. Three years later,under the same grumpy rubric, she allowed me toinclude it in my thematic catalogue of her works, butall she had to show me was a muddy photocopy of thefirst page of the cello part. Thus, while much ink hasbeen spilled over the fact that the Rhapsody remainedunpublished for nearly a century after its premiere,there is no known evidence that Clarke envisionedpublication, and every reason to suspect that she mighthave refused it, had it been offered; in any event, nosuch offer was received during her lifetime. Since then,the Rhapsody has enjoyed growing interest from criticsand performers. [Christopher Johnson]
- ISMN: 9790708167280 (M708167280)
