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Donald Macleod explores the period Rebecca Clarke studied with Stanford at the Royal College of Music

Rebecca Clarke was one of the leading viola-players of her generation and composed over one hundred works, many for her own instrument. In 1912 and aged only twenty-five, Sir Henry Wood engaged Clarke to play in his Queen's Hall Orchestra, and from then on she also performed with such luminaries as Pablo Casals, Jascha Heifetz and Myra Hess in orchestral and chamber settings. Clarke was at the pinnacle of music making both in the UK, and also giving concerts as she toured around the globe. Arthur Rubenstein called her 'the glorious Rebecca Clarke'. As a composer, her viola sonata has stayed firmly in the repertoire yet few other works are remembered today, despite at one point having three publishers negotiating to publish her works. Donald Macleod is joined by Christopher Johnson who married into Clarke's family, and also Ian Jones, Deputy Head of Keyboard at the Royal College of Music, to lift the veil on this once highly regarded performer and composer.

Rebecca Clarke was born in Harrow-on-the-Hill to the north of London in 1886. Her mother's family were mainly doctors, professors and clergymen from Bavaria. Her father, on the other hand, was from the United States and was a restless and colourful character, often given to beating his children. Clarke started to study the violin when she was young and in 1903 went to the Royal Academy of Music. However she didn't remain there long, for when her father found out she'd been proposed to by one of her teachers, he withdrew his daughter from the Academy. Soon she was enrolled at the Royal College of Music and started composition lessons with Stanford. A fellow student advised her to stand up to Stanford in her lessons, which she did, and Stanford and Clarke subsequently became very good friends. During this period at the RCM, which Clarke describes as an ecstatic time, she composed a number of works, including her Violin Sonata in D major and also her Danse Bizarre and Nocturne.

Lullaby
Philip Dukes, viola
Sophia Rahman, piano

Music, When Soft Voices Die
Choir of Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge
Geoffrey Webber, conductor

Theme and Variations in G major (excerpt)
Ian Jones, piano

Violin Sonata in D major
Lorraine McAslan, violin
Ian Jones, piano

Danse Bizarre
Lorraine McAslan, violin
David Juritz, violin
Ian Jones, piano

Nocturne
Lorraine McAslan, violin
David Juritz, violin
Ian Jones, piano

Producer Luke Whitlock.