The troubled life of English composer Ernest John Moeran (1894–1950) ended 75 years ago, when he fell into the water at Kenmare in Ireland, and his death was officially recorded as a cerebral haemorrhage. To honour the life of E.J. Moeran, SOMM Recordings is releasing broadcasts that were privately recorded by Lionel Hill, author of Lonely Waters: The Diary of a Friendship with E J Moeran. This commemorative release, with outstanding audio restoration by Lani Spahr, includes Moeran’s Symphony in G minor conducted by Sir Adrian Boult and his Violin Concerto with the incomparable Albert Sammons as soloist. Additionally, Moeran’s Cello Concerto, written for his wife Peers Coetmore, is available as a download.

E.J. Moeran was born to an Irish Protestant priest and a Norfolk-born mother, and the duality of his nationality finds expression in his music. He wrote of his Symphony in G minor that it “may be said to owe its inspiration to the natural surroundings in which it was planned and written. The greater part of the work was carried out among the mountains and seaboard of Co. Kerry, but the material of the second movement was conceived around the sand-dunes and marshes of East Norfolk.” On 9 February, 1949, Moeran and his friend Lionel Hill attended a performance of the symphony at the Royal Albert Hall, with Adrian Boult conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra. That is the performance heard on this CD.

The first movement of Moeran’s Violin Concerto, written in Co. Kerry, was similarly inspired by the calm of Kenmare Bay in fine weather, while the Lento last movement reflected a period of seasonal colour and beauty along the Kenmare River. The second movement Rondo is unmistakably imbued with the spirit of Kerry fairs and Irish fiddlers. Moeran wrote that “Albert Sammons is the only living violinist I would like to have interpret it.” This recording, a BBC Home Service broadcast from Norfolk on 28 April 1946, is Sammons’s last public concerto performance. One cannot overemphasise the importance of this recording; it is, as far as we know, Sammons’s only known live recording.

In December 1943, eighteen months before their marriage, Moeran wrote to the Irish cellist Peers Coetmore, “Please write and tell me you would like me to write a concerto especially for you, and I give you my promise that I will put my whole heart into it.” The result is a work of considerable beauty, especially memorable for the typically Irish tune that introduces the slow movement. Following the premiere in Dublin, Coetmore gave its first London performance in April 1946 – available here as a download – with Adrian Boult conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra.