Tovey: Chamber Music, Vol. 3 Alice Neary, Kate Gould, Gretel Dowdeswell

• Donald Francis Tovey (1875 - 1940): Sonata for 2 Cellos in G Major:
• 1 Tovey: Sonata for 2 Cellos in G Major: I. Allegro vivace 12:35
• 2 Tovey: Sonata for 2 Cellos in G Major: II. Andante maestoso e sostenuto 05:53
• 3 Tovey: Sonata for 2 Cellos in G Major: III. Presto giocoso 05:55
• Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750): Prelude in C Minor, BWV 999 (Arr. D.F. Tovey for Cello & Piano):
• 4 Bach: Prelude in C Minor, BWV 999 (Arr. D.F. Tovey for Cello & Piano) 01:49
• Donald Francis Tovey: Sonata for Solo Cello in D Major, Op. 30:
• 5 Tovey: Sonata for Solo Cello in D Major, Op. 30: I. Allegro con brio ma largamente 09:01
• 6 Tovey: Sonata for Solo Cello in D Major, Op. 30: II. Allegretto, un poco agitato, ma sempre piano 09:00
• 7 Tovey: Sonata for Solo Cello in D Major, Op. 30: III. Passacaglia 16:38
• Cello Sonata in F Major, Op. 4:
• 8 Tovey: Cello Sonata in F Major, Op. 4: I. Allegrissimo 10:49
• 9 Tovey: Cello Sonata in F Major, Op. 4: II. Andante cantabile 07:56
• 10 Tovey: Cello Sonata in F Major, Op. 4: III. Finale. Vivace giocoso ma non presto 08:22
• Total Runtime 01:27:58

Info for Tovey: Chamber Music, Vol. 3

Sir Donald Tovey (1875–1940), long hailed as one of the finest writers on music in English, saw himself primarily as a composer. His occasionally turbulent friendship with Pau Casals was the spur for a monumental concerto and one of his three cello sonatas: for solo cello, two cellos and cello with piano. The cello was the ideal instrument for Tovey’s Brahmsian musical language, with its long, singing lines unfolding in effortless counterpoint – though the huge passacaglia that ends the solo sonata also demands a virtuoso technique. The brief Bach arrangement recorded here for the first time arose when the twelve-year-old Tovey added a cello line to one of Bach’s best-known preludes, originally for lute.

Alice Neary, cello
Kate Gould, cello (tracks 1–3)
Gretel Dowdeswell, piano (tracks 4, 8–10)

Alice Neary
Winner of the 1998 Pierre Fournier Award and major prizes in the 2001 Leonard Rose Competition in the United States and the 1997 Adam International Cello Competition in New Zealand, Alice Neary has appeared as a soloist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Israel Symphony and in recitals at the Wigmore Hall and Bridgewater Hall. She has broadcast extensively on BBC Radio 3 and NPR in America and recorded Tovey’s Cello Concerto with the Ulster Orchestra.

She is a member of the Gould Piano Trio and has appeared as guest cellist with the Nash Ensemble, Endellion and Elias quartets. She studied with Ralph Kirshbaum at the Royal Northern College of Music and, as a Fulbright scholar, with Timothy Eddy in the United States and now teaches at the Royal College of Music in London and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

She plays an Alessandro Gagliano cello of 1710.

Kate Gould
has devoted most of her career to chamber music, presently as a member of the London Bridge Trio and, formerly, the internationally acclaimed Leopold String Trio. As a BBC New Generations Artist and ECHO Rising Star, she also won awards from the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Borletti-Buitoni Trust for exceptional performances and recordings.

She is artistic director of the Winchester Chamber Music Festival and the Ironstone Chamber Music Festival and often invited to other festivals worldwide. In addition, she is a longstanding member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and regularly plays as guest-principal cellist of the English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC symphony orchestras.

Gretel Dowdeswell
was a founder member of the Gould Piano Trio, and has subsequently gained a reputation as a chamber music specialist, performing throughout Europe, Australia, Canada and the Far East. Her concerts have frequently been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in the UK and she has appeared at many major European chamber music events including the Edinburgh Festival Queen's Hall, BBC Proms Chamber Music series, the Philharmonia Chamber Music series, the Presteigne Festival and Claudio Abbado's chamber music series in Ferrara.

Recent engagements have included a recital of Sibelius and Grieg broadcast on BBC Radio 3 from The Sage Gateshead with the Finnish violinist, Pekka Kuusisto, and a tour of Australia and New Zealand with members of the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Her duo with cellist Alice Neary has released a disc of Tovey's Elegiac Variations (coupled with his Cello Concerto, on Toccata Classics). Other duo appearances include recitals with Jian Wang, Ralph Kirshbaum, Andras Keller, James Clark, Thomas Riebl and Gabor Takas-Nagy.

Dowdeswell studied with Hamish Milne at the Royal Academy of Music and with András Schiff and György Kurtág at the International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, where she is now resident pianist and a regular guest at the annual IMS Open Chamber Music.

Booklet for Tovey: Chamber Music, Vol. 3