"Too many notes, my
dear Mozart, and too beautiful for our
ears". Listening to this CD certainly
brought to mind the Emperor's (probably
apocryphal) comment. There are indeed
many notes here, and the first thing
to say is that they are negotiated with
immense capability and aplomb by Murray
McLachlan. But too many? Thinking in
particular of Erik Chisholm's immense
sonata, it would be very easy to say
that this or that passage is inessential
to the musical argument. But to say
that would be assuming that a 'musical
argument' is a standard process, whereas
we know that the great composers of
piano sonatas - Beethoven, Schubert,
Liszt, Chopin, Scriabin, Prokofiev,
etc - all had their different ways with
the form and would have dealt entirely
differently with the same material.
And Chisholm is different
again. The first movement with its pibroch
theme - "The Sinclair's March" - is
highly discursive, yet I was always
listening keenly for what would happen
next, while enjoying the moment. Hearing
the music for the first time was a real
voyage of discovery. The powerfully
motoric Scherzo second movement is full
of pianistic invention while the Lament,
written to commemorate the loss of the
submarine HMS Thetis in 1939, interweaves
brooding chords with intricate bagpipe-like
scales. An Allegro Moderato completes
the work in powerful style.
Chisholm merits the
soubriquet 'MacBartok' but certainly
not to his detriment. Yes, the sonata
is long, perhaps overlong but I didn't
regret at all those few extra minutes,
and certainly not in McLachlan's magnificent
performance which feels absolutely true
to the spirit of the work.
Bartók's bagpipes
and drums preface the Chisholm sonata
naturally and the remaining composers
on the CD are all associated in some
way. Chisholm alone constituted the
audience at the first performance of
Sorabji's three-and-a-half hour leviathan
Opus Clavicembalisticum but I found
that even the three minutes of the Fantasiettina
on this CD outstayed their welcome.
Others may make more sense of this composer
who seems to get good and bad press
in equal measure. This Fantasiettina
is in three sections with an opening
whose likeness to that of Prokofiev's
Toccata only served to remind me how
much more memorable the Russian's music
is. I could not escape the feeling that
the abruptness of the coda was simply
the composer getting bored with the
'ravishing textures' (as the liner notes
have it) of the slow section.
For just the right
number of notes, my personal favourite
on this CD has to be Stevenson's Sonatina
based on themes from Weill's music to
Der Dreigroschenoper. Not a note is
wasted as Stevenson artfully combines
'Pirate Jenny', the 'Instead of' song
and the Tango-Ballad, with 'Mack the
Knife', as in the opera, casting a shadow
over all. Stevenson miraculously encapsulates
of the mood of the opera while offering
pianistic challenges in the form of
a miniature study and a fugue on top
of some delicious counterpoint. Murray
McLachlan's performance is a model of
clarity. Begun in 1987, the Sonatina
was modified as recently as 2003; it
would be fascinating to know what the
latest changes were! Stevenson is a
giant of British music, indeed of all
music, all too few of whose several
hundred works have been recorded. Raymond
Clarke's performance of the huge and
remarkably inventive Passacaglia on
DSCH on Marco Polo is eminently recommendable.
Murray McLachlan has himself recorded
the extraordinarily individual Piano
Concertos and various other piano works
for Olympia.
The remainder of the
CD is devoted to one of Busoni's most
ambitious homages to Bach and the art
of counterpoint. Once again, McLachlan
plays this work with the utmost clarity
and power though I found the music curiously
uninteresting and difficult to listen
to, unlike that of Stevenson, a pupil
of Busoni. Perhaps the work will yield
more on repeated hearing which McLachlan's
clearly committed playing will make
all the easier.
I am sure I will return
to this CD again and again, to experience
great pianism, unique sonorities, to
try harder with Busoni and to get closer
to the essence of music with Stevenson's
Sonatina.
Roger Blackburn
see also
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