Guirne Creith: Violin Concerto in G minor

Guirne Creith

(born Gladys Mary Cohen, 1907-1996)

was an English composer and pianist most active in the 1920s and 1930s. She received the Charles Lucas Prize in 1925, having entered the Royal Academy of Music just two years before under the pseudonym Guirne M Creith.

Violin Concerto in G minor

I. Maestoso - quasi recitativo - Allegro non troppo - Tranquillo - Adagio 0:00
II. Adagio con intimo sentimento 11:31
III. Allegro vivace 16:35

Lorraine McAslan, violin
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Martin Yates, conductor

She took an early interest in music, astounding her parents with her abilities at the age of 8. Entering the RAM, she took her pseudonym, and studied piano and viola. Her tone poem Rapunzel was performed by Ernö von Dohnanyi with his Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra when that body visited the Royal Academy in 1928. It was conducted by Sir Hamilton Harty 6 years later.

Unfortunately, Creith dealt carelessly with her music. After she injured her hand, making performance and composition difficult. After 1952, she stopped composing altogether, although she continued to teach music.

After her death she became known for her Concerto in G minor for Violin and Orchestra, which had been premiered by Albert Sammons, conducted by Constant Lambert, on May 19, 1936.

Copisarow's worklist mentions, in all, 4 orchestral works (only the concerto survives), 6 works of chamber music (though all 6 of these are lost and known only from descriptions, so their instrumentation is a matter of conjecture; the ballade might be for orchestra for example), 6 songs (5 of them published between 1929 and 1956, and the other lost- apparently her only published works), and one ballet (also lost). The recently-recorded concerto was discovered recently by family members in full-score manuscript. In all, of these, only her published songs and the violin concerto are known to survive, and the latter only because the manuscript was rediscovered.