In the late 1980s I
acquired a 3-CD set of the complete
piano music by the Estonian composer
Eduardo Tubin on the BIS label (BIS-CD
414/6 – it is still available). There
are many similarities here both in terms
of the music and the package on offer.
In their piano output both Tubin and
Leighton wrote sonatas, sonatinas, preludes
and variations, used themes of other
composers and created music for children.
Although they each wrote for the piano
over a long period of time, the majority
of their outputs for the instrument
date from early in their respective
careers. Both sets fit neatly onto 3
CDs, are the work of artists who knew
the composer well (Vardo Rumessen for
Tubin) and neither is likely to be surpassed.
Tubin’s works were written in the period
1927-1978 and contain more national
influence. Leighton’s span more than
forty years from 1946 and are rarely
overtly "British". Their styles
are not dissimilar with ambiguous tonalities
and some "toughness" about
the major works. Leighton’s earliest
piano works were written whilst he was
in his teens but are not juvenilia.
Leighton was born in
Yorkshire and became a chorister in
Wakefield Cathedral at an early age.
A talented pianist, he read music at
Oxford and had some contact with Vaughan
Williams, Rubbra and Finzi, the latter
performing some of his early string
works. Subsequently a scholarship enabled
him to study in Rome for a year with
the composer Goffredo Petrassi. On his
return to Britain he became an academic
and worked at the Royal Marine School
of Music and Leeds University before
being appointed to the Faculty of Music
in Edinburgh in 1955. Apart from a brief
period in Oxford he remained there until
his premature death, holding the chair
from 1970. There is fairly extensive
information about Leighton available
on the Edinburgh University website
including a list of his compositions
and discography (see link below). Unfortunately,
in respect of the latter, this does
not seem to have been updated since
1998. In passing, a splendid disc containing
his Cello Concerto and Symphony No 3
has recently been re-issued at mid-price
on Chandos (CHAN10307X) {to be reviewed).
Rather than go through
the music in the order it appears on
the discs, I propose to group the various
genres together, the sonatas being the
obvious place to start. Leighton was
only 19 when he wrote the first. This
has a fairly conventional four movement
structure with a scherzo placed second
followed by a contemplative slow movement
marked lento e semplice. The
second followed five years later and
was dedicated to Eric Parkin. This is
in three movements with a lyrical central
elegy and concluding theme and variations.
The theme is dark and almost atonal,
spawning eight imaginative variations,
a form in which Leighton clearly excelled.
As documented here, the final sonata
seems not have been designated No. 3
but merely Op.64. It was written two
decades later for Peter Wallfisch. Also
in three movements, the first two are
both slow and the third marked Toccatas
and Chorales: Presto precipitoso.
If you think that sounds like an interesting
recipe you’d be right!
After the sonatas,
the most important works seem to be
the sets of nine variations – Opp. 30
and 36, the six study variations, the
Fantasia Contrappuntistica,
Conflicts and the five preludes.
The latter were incomplete at the time
of Leighton’s death, part of a planned
cycle of 24 covering all the keys. These
are the only works here with designated
key signatures and they are very fine
inspirations that would surely have
been part of a major masterpiece had
he lived to complete it. The two sets
are variations are virtually serial
in method but Leighton never seems to
completely eschew tonality. In the op.
30 set each piece is named (for example
the third is called "Ninna-nanna")
and in both sets the tempo markings
are highly specified. Appropriately
enough, the five-part Fantasia Contrappuntistica
was written for and won the Busoni prize,
the first performance being given by
Pollini. As implied by the subtitle,
Bach rather than Busoni’s own piece
of the same name is the main underlying
inspiration but the composer also acknowledged
a debt to Bartók. At just under
20 minutes, Conflicts is one
of the most substantial piano works
by the composer with the subtitle "Fantasy"
belying another exercise in variation
form based on two contrasting themes.
Most of the remaining
pieces may not be at the same level
of artistic inspiration as those discussed
above but they still make for good listening.
The Sonatinas were Leighton’s first
published compositions and contains
influences from Debussy and Hindemith.
Each is conventionally structured in
three movements and despite their modest
designation, both make considerable
demands on the pianist. Of the works
for children, the Pieces for Angela
(the composer’s daughter) and Household
Pets are the most notable. The latter
is a series of six Satiesque takes on
common pets followed by a slow wrap-up
called Animal Heaven. Jack-in-the-box
is a striking stand-alone miniature
which illustrates the composer’s humorous
side well.
Angela Brownridge is
a virtuoso pianist who studied harmony
and counterpoint with Leighton in Edinburgh.
She is completely inside this music,
the technical demands of which are often
great. Giving the impression that this
exercise was a labour of love, she has
been backed up with a first-class recording.
The documentation consists of a detailed
essay on the music by Adam Binks. "Many"
of the works are said to be first recordings
although we are not told which ones;
the Op.64 Sonata, Household Pets,
Conflicts and Fantasia Contrappuntistica
have certainly been recorded before.
This would be my only criticism but
it hardly matters what else is out there
already, anyone interested in the composer
will need to have this set. The making
of these important recordings was supported
by various trusts and we should be grateful
to them all.
Finally, to return
to my comparison with Tubin. Over a
period of 17 years that is a set I have
revisited as much as anything I bought
around that time, always with pleasure.
I recall that one of the original discs
had a problem which was not cured by
a replacement and I had to write to
BIS to obtain a perfect copy. The effort
was worthwhile since there is something
indefinably special about it. My thoughts
on the Leighton are similar but obviously
much more preliminary. Without a crystal
ball, I can’t be sure that I will feel
the same about this as the Tubin set
in almost couple of decades time but
I suspect I will. It would be surprising
if it remains continuously in the catalogue
until then, so don’t hesitate to invest
in this outstanding set while you can.
Patrick C Waller
Further information about the composer:
http://www.music.ed.ac.uk/composition/composers/leighton
and Rob Barnett writes:-
Bravo to Delphian,
Jo Leighton (the composer's widow) and
Leighton pupil Angela Brownridge on
this superb set. Here we have Leighton's
complete works for solo piano from the
earliest in 1946 (Sonatina Op. 1) to
the latest in 1988 (Preludes). His contemporaries
Alan Rawsthorne and Howard Ferguson
also wrote solo piano music though nowhere
near as much. Leighton is closer to
Ferguson than to Rawsthorne. His affair
with dissonance began in the mid-1950s.
The Five Studies Op.
22 are brilliant yet never superficial.
They require a pianist with a fearsome
technique to conquer and articulate
their leonine spirit. Leighton is shown
here as a ‘grand manner’ romantic tracing
a generously exuberant and exhilarating
line from Chopin to Liszt to Rachmaninov
via Debussy. The molto lento (No.
4) is a profound and reflective piece
in which once or twice the listener
can glimpse a shadow from the music
of Leighton's friend Gerald Finzi.
The Op. 1 Sonatina
betrays French voices - Debussy both
pert and soliloquising is there but
then so is the engaging and poignant
Poulenc. The 1955 Variations represent
one of Leighton’s forays into dodecaphony.
He is not in thrall to the method but
bends it to his will to produce entrancing
effects as in the bell-like agility
of the Toccata (CD1 tr. 12). By the
way, each variation is separately tracked.
The Interludio is magical, seeming
to catch echoes of crystalline elfin
fanfares.
The four movement First
Sonata of 1955 remains highly romantic
yet clean and with textures unsmudged.
The finale made me think of the jazziness
of Constant Lambert and the guying playfulness
of the Toccata by Bax and of
Moeran's Bank Holiday.
The Second Piano Sonata
followed five years after the First.
Once again this is soused in the grand
romantic manner - modernised Lisztian,
grandiloquently torrid in the first
movement (made me think of the Ferguson
sonata), plangent and gently capricious
in the central elegiaco. The
finale is unambiguously tragic and impressively
concentrated. Eric Parkin was its dedicatee.
The 1967 work Conflicts
is his single longest continuous
stretch of music for solo piano. It
is dissonant and terribly serious. Leighton
wrote it between May and August 1967
yet the music seems to have more of
winter's angularity and chill in its
sinews than of summer's renewal. The
work is well called Conflicts.
To hear this aspect and also a hollow
sense of negation try 12.30 onwards;
ineluctable after all that has gone
before.
The Four Romantic
Pieces of 1986 again admit more
of dissonance than we are accustomed
to from the earlier works such as the
Five Studies. This music recalls
Rawsthorne in his Bagatelles or
Ballade. The Adagio molto
(CD 2 tr. 7) is the prize of this
group. The Fantasia Contrappuntistica
pays a dual hommage to Bach and
Busoni. Indeed this serious work with
its Bartókian energy (CD2 tr.
10) won the Busoni prize in 1956 and
was premiered there by no less than
Maurizio Pollini. This is a work of
sobriety. Even its display is through
gritted teeth.
There are 38 tracks
on the last CD - a sweeping up but by
no means an assemblage of inconsequentiality.
The Second Sonatina
is early (1947) with a carefree air.
Early Leighton of this vintage is extremely
attractive. Although it starts and ends
with a pawky Shostakovich-like humour
it soon moves into sunny and smiling
realms: a little like John Ireland through
Poulenc. For all that Leighton is a
Scot the andante sostenuto strikes
me as the very paradigm of the English
idyll.
By 1959 he had left
such trifles aside. His grave Nine
Variations is a serial work. However
this regimen is spun, it sounds either
the stuff of nightmare or of a desolation
wanly lit with moonlight. This is no
exception. The 1972 Piano Sonata was
written for Peter Wallfisch (father
of the cellist, Raphael Wallfisch).
Peter was also the champion of several
of the three Leighton piano concertos,
all broadcast by the BBC. Caught between
major and minor, the work sounds disconsolate
or aggressive with much of the energetic
writing showing syncopation - again
a linkage with Lambert and in this work
even Gershwin. I hasten to add that
the style is fairly obdurate.
From 1981 comes the
suite of seven portraits of Household
Pets. This was written for able
and discerning children to play. The
pieces range from the dreamy fantasy
of Cat's Lament to the clumsily
bounding Jolly Dog to the Debussy-Berners
style of Goldfish to the blithe
and jazzy White Rabbit (another
lovely piece, by the way) to the mildewed
lament of Bird in Cage to the
insistent Squeaky Guinea Pig (a
little like Moskowski's Java Suite monkeys).
The final piece, Animal Heaven,
is both restful and sorrowing. It makes
a subtle and emotionally rounded adieu
to this skilful and probing suite. Many
of the pictures strike me as rather
objective and cool but in Animal
Heaven and White Rabbit Leighton
touches on emotional wellsprings. The
work is dedicated to the composer's
dog, Bruce.
Jack-in-the-Box
is a Gallic knockabout piece written
as a Ricordi commission. The 1965 Study
is a relaxation from serial wastelands.
From the same year comes another TCM
examination piece Lazy-Bones,
a warm sauntering andante.
The Pieces for Angela
were written in 1966. They were
written for the composer's daughter.
These seven miniatures are relaxed and
playful. As Adam Binks points out, similar
suites by Debussy (Children's Corner)
and Dallapiccola (Quaderno Musicale
di Annalibera) are a clear parallel.
These are uniformly more personal and
emotionally communicative than the Household
Pets suite. The Final Fanfare
movement reminded me fleetingly
of Britten and his Serenade fanfares.
The set ends with the
extremely demanding five Preludes
of 1988, the year of his death.
The D minor Prelude is surging and grandly
virtuosic; high gestural rhetoric of
a grand order. We might see this as
a modern echo of Rachmaninov but more
the Etudes-Tableaux than the
Preludes. The D major prelude
Lentissimo dolce e cantabile uses
a luxuriously singing Rachmaninovian
style and this carries over, with a
modicum of dissonance, in the E flat
minor. The C major Prelude is a work
of chime and charm - lambent and again
lit with a beaming Poulencian smile.
The C minor Prelude return to the hauteur
and rhetoric of the D minor work. This
makes a fitting and indeed transfixing
envoi to the third disc and to the whole
box.
This project has been
superbly planned and carried through
with great attention to detail and to
the grand sweep. You will make your
own discoveries from the more than three
hours of music here. Among so many memorable
pieces the highlights are those Five
Preludes, the two sonatinas, Animal Heaven,
the First and Second Sonatas and the
Five Studies.
Adam Binks writes very
well. His notes are clear and unburdened
with technicalities.
Just superb ... and
recommended strongly alongside another
three CD set - the complete Malcolm
Williamson on ABC Classics.
We need more Leighton.
I wonder if the BBC would license out
to Delphian the three piano concertos
as broadcast by Peter Wallfisch. There
are also attractive concertos for cello
and violin not to mention the first
two symphonies.
As for Delphian they
do this sort of thing consummately well.
Can we hope that they will now look
to the solo piano music of that other
forgotten but living Scottish master
Ronald Stevenson.
Leightonites must have
this and those who have any interest
in the piano music of the 20th century
will be generously rewarded when they
buy this set.
Rob Barnett
for
details
Angela Brownridge (piano) 
