We have much to learn
about Chisholm and can be thankful that
Dunelm and the now defunct Olympia have
paid him some attention. We now need
recordings of his two 1930s symphonies,
his second piano concerto (The Hindustani)
and the violin concerto.
His daughter Morag
continues to promote his music, ably
abetted by Murray Maclachlan who takes
the lead here. During this centenary
year (2004) there have been several
piano recitals and Cape Town have mounted
two of his one act operas.
There are three works
on this generously packed CD. The three
movement Straloch Suite is
often gracious in its first two movements
which veer between Handelian grandeur
and Graingerian whimsey. The finale
moves from pounding attack to a touching
song of love ... or is it seduction.
The Scottish Airs (22 of them),
like the Straloch Suite, draw
on tunes in seventeenth and eighteenth
century song collections. These Gaelic
melodies are touchingly done. The music
becomes more emotionally pregnant and
complex with the tightened version of
the 1939 Sonata. This edition (presumably
the work of the pianist) omits repeated
material reducing the length of the
work to 33 minutes. This Sonata is deeply
impressive, clangorous with skirling
majesty, abjuring tartan nonsense and
staying in touch with the expressive
autochthonous roots of the highland
culture - dangerous, harsh-edged and
sheerly beautiful. The music rests comfortably
alongside the wilder expressivity of
Percy Grainger (Hill Songs and
The Warriors) and Ronald Stevenson.
After a feral Scherzo comes the
Lament - Thetis (the name of
the British submarine that sank on its
first diving trials on 1 June 1939 with
the loss of all save four of its crew).
The Lament follows the path of
the Catédrale engloutie but
coloured in slate and inky green. A
small insistent figure (tr. 28 2:18)
probably refers to the divers tapping
on the hull. The finale is an allegro
moderato - in which Bartókian
rhythmic life meets grand gestures from
Bax's sonatas, and the spirit of the
undomesticated places of the Scottish
wilderness. This work seems often to
strain at the practical limits of two
hands and a keyboard. Did Chisholm ever
intend to make a symphony from this
work?
If you warm to Vaughan
Williams’ Lake in the Woods,
Grainger's Hill Songs, Bax's
Toccata or Maxwell Davies’ Farewell
to Stromness you will like this.
Don't forget to get Dunelm's recording
of Chisholm's First Piano Concerto on
DRD0174.
Rob Barnett
see also
review by Roger Blackburn
see also
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Murray McLachlan, piano
