It doesn’t need a rationale
to enjoy this evocative and delightful
disc but the exploration of east/west
music is the one advanced by Anthony
Goldstone. To that end we have a veritable
geographical expeditionary force to
track down works here that were transcribed,
or originally written, for piano duet
or for two pianos.
Adam Gorb’s Yiddish
Dances was originally written for
symphonic winds in 1997 but has been
reworked for piano duet in 2003. It’s
marked by infectious brio and the recitativo
opulence of the Doina, the ebullience
of the Freylachs and all the
narrative drama of his chosen material.
And how instructive to follow this with
Saint-Saëns’ Caprice Arabe,
which as Goldstone astutely points out,
contains a seeming evocation of the
Terkishe one of the other movements
from Golb’s Yiddish Dances. It
argues for the rhythmic and melodic
duality of music such as this, its ability
to mutate in different cultures.
Beni Mora is,
like the Caprice Arabe, well
known enough but not necessarily in
this two piano version arranged by Nora
Day, dedicatee of two of Holst’s piano
pieces, and edited by Goldstone who
has clarified the text by referring
to the orchestral score. I like the
way Goldstone and Clemmow allow the
elastic pull of the dances to make their
full effect on the listener, how adroitly
the little bass fill-ins animate the
first dance, how the tension of the
second derives from those left hand
repeated notes. In fact the ostinati
here are infectious as is the cornucopic
pictures Holst summons up.
McPhee’s Balinese
Ceremonial Music proves pure hypnosis
once again, with the final Taboeh
Teloe perhaps shading it in inventiveness
and rhythmic vivacity. Mayer’s Sangit
Alamkara Suite was written in 1988
and utilises a prepared piano that evokes
the sound of a sitar – it involves plucking
of the bass strings as well. For all
that there is real chordal depth and
a noble tune (slow, romantic) embedded
in the central section of Jawab-sawal,
itself the central movement of the five.
This is splendid music, ending with
a moto perpetuo of flickering bass pointing
in the Gaud Mallar Taan - made
all the more enticing for its reflective
stops amidst the hurtling drama. We
also visit In the Steppes of Central
Asia in Borodin’s own duet version
– adeptly accomplished – and Achron’s
Hebrew Melody, a warm harbour
for big toned fiddle players and here
in the arranged Auer arranged Goldstone
version.
This is a thoroughly
enjoyable disc. That it’s also musically
elevated, in performances of sweep and
sensitivity, and splendidly recorded,
is no surprise. Ornithologists will
note the Golden Oriole on the booklet
cover, a bird that ranges as freely
as the music enshrined therein.
Jonathan Woolf
Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow (pianos)
piano duet* two pianos** 
