Philip Gates was born in London in 1963 and read Music at Oxford,
studying piano privately with Phyllis Sellick. He is now a free-lance
musician and composer. I see that he has composed wind music,
amongst which is an alto work performed by that splendid player
Roy Willcox and recorded by Shellwood Productions. He’s written
sonatas and an A minor String Quartet (also recorded). This is
my first encounter with his music.
A Garland for
Gatsby, for solo piano, was written in 2007 and closely
follows the plot of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel. Each incident
is separately tracked – there are eighteen such altogether –
and the music enters the Jazz Age with confidence and mordancy.
Gatsby is a blues-tinged opener whilst the flirty, flighty
Daisy is represented by drawing room pastiche, which
shows us her vacuous attractiveness. There are Gershwinesque
moments in Tom – and elsewhere too - and cross-referencing
adds strongly to the inter-related nature of the characters’
entanglements; Myrtle for instance picks up on Tom
but ‘blues’ it in a very sassy way.
As one can tell
Gates has imbued his music with the spirit of the 1920s; curdled
romance runs through one or two of the movements, as does the
air of artificiality or deliberately evoked triviality. One
of the cleverest examples is the Charleston [track 11]
which has a formalised gaiety and then a halting rather disruptive
air to it that hints at the unease lurking beneath the Bright
Lights ambience. Gatsby’s Longing – which embodies one
of the most haunting passages in the novel – is imbued with
hints of Debussy. Foreboding grows as the cycle nears its end
– deep bass tolling in The Vigil; the two gunshots that
end Gatsby’s life represented by the piano’s treble; nice touch.
Many would have gone for something altogether more ‘Frankie
and Jonny’ - but we hear the shots from a distance and that’s
what Gates conveys.
Very much enjoyed
this piece; it’s tonal, lyrical, employs the 20s idioms without
either obvious pastiche or embarrassment. Excellent tunes too.
The Piano Quintet
is a much earlier work, dating from 1997 and is cast in three
movements. Its idiom is early to mid period Bridge, and Howells
maybe. There are fine sul ponticello and pizzicato-laced
moments and plenty of fine sounding tunes. The slow movement’s
initial fulsome romanticism is checked by some unease at its
heart. But the finale banishes that with a vigorous and energetic
tarantella. The Lake Isle (1994) is the final work here. Gates
pays tribute to the Celtic Twilight in this piece which perhaps
owes something to Bax – oboist Andrew Knights and the composer
himself are at the helm of this lyric and bardic ballad.
This is a most engaging
disc. Its idiom is sometimes almost defiantly old fashioned
but there’s nothing wrong with that in my book.
Jonathan Woolf
see also Review
by Rob Barnett
Philip Gates
(piano) - Gatsby 
