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Lady Maggie's Lilt: Music From The Lute Book Of Lady Margaret Wemyss
Music & Media · May 2013CD$20.99 -
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Bach: Well-tempered Clavier / Evelyne Crochet
Music and Arts Programs of America · Mar 2006CD$48.99
Lady Maggie's Lilt: Music From The Lute Book Of Lady Margaret Wemyss
LADY MAGGIE’S LILT: MUSIC FROM THE LUTE BOOK OF LADY MARGARET WEMYSS, 1629-1648 • Martin Eastwell (lt) • MMC 104 (62:53)
Uniquely in my experience, this disc contains 45 short pieces, mostly anonymous, a body of work that comprises about half of what has been found in the book of the Scottish Lady Margaret Wemyss, who started a book of music and poems when she was 12. Many of the tunes played here are simple arrangements of Scottish tunes: Martin Eastwell suggests that the book is particularly interesting for the insights it provides into Scottish folk music. Eastwell has added seven preludes of his own devising to groups of pieces he feels hold together. He has also added embellishments to I Never Knew I Loved Thee , and borrowed the last piece, The Flowers of the Forest from another contemporary Scottish book. Flowers was written as an elegy for Lady Margaret. Half of the collection, according to Eastwell, is of French origin: He includes pieces by Gaultier, Lespine, Mesangeau, Dufault, and de Chancy. Many of the pieces, such as The Corbie and the Pigot, are very simple though pretty. There are laments, and sprightly songs like Fair and Louky. The competition here is with a disc by Jakob Lindberg, though that disc only duplicates some of the music found here. Lindberg’s Lady Binnis Lilt is much more folksy and dance-like than is Eastwell’s rendition. There’s something a little wild about Lindberg’s playing. In these small pieces, Eastwell is restrained and lyrical. The disc may not contain towering masterpieces, but it surely is pleasant to listen to.
FANFARE: Michael Ullman
The Film & TV Music Of Christopher Gunning
GUNNING Poirot Variants. 1 La Móme Piaf. 2 Under Suspicion. Cold Lazarus. Rosemary and Thyme Caprice. 3 Rebecca. 4 Pollyanna. Firelight. When the Whales Came. 5 The Hollow. 5 Little Pigs. 6 Lighthouse Hill • Rumon Gamba, cond; BBC Phil; 1 Martin Robertson(sax); 2,5 Nicole Tibbels (sop); 2 Matthew Compton (acc); 3 Craig Ogden (gtr); 4 Julia Bradshaw (vc); 6 Yuri Torchinsky (vn) • CHANDOS 10625 (75:50)
Some 20 years ago a friend alerted me to a limited-edition recording of the score for a British television documentary, Yorkshire Glory . This gloriously lyrical music in a richly pastoral vein was my introduction to the work of Christopher Gunning (b.1944), a composer who is reinvigorating the timeless tradition of Vaughan Williams, Holst, Finzi, et al. However, this pupil of Richard Rodney Bennett as well as Edmund Rubbra can, when appropriate, also demonstrate an acute awareness of postwar developments in English music, as this generous and varied compendium of his film and television music over the past two decades makes clear.
This collection marks the first time in Chandos’s indispensable movie-music series when a living composer has directly participated in the presentation of his scores. Gunning has prepared special versions for this particular project in the form of small-scaled but through-composed tone poems, not the customary sequence of disconnected excerpts. So the listener can experience this disc as a kind of multimovement suite of diverse moods, because of the high consistency and individuality of the writing.
Although only a few of the films and television series will be familiar to American audiences, two of the well-known highlights open the program. The Poirot Variants for saxophone and orchestra—a totally independent work from the composer who gave us the lovely Thames Rhapsody for the same combination (available on a Dutton Epoch disc of several years ago)—is based on the well-known wily and insinuating theme that introduced the popular BBC series starring David Suchet. The following piece, for accordion and orchestra, is derived from music for the acclaimed film biography of French legendary singer Edith Piaf, La Vie en Rose . The alternation of film and television scores continues with the 1990s thriller Under Suspicion starring Liam Neeson, and the great television dramatist Dennis Potter’s final effort, Cold Lazarus. Both of these illustrate Gunning’s darker and more melodramatic side.
Then follow a number of lesser-known television productions: a sprightly, folk-inflected caprice for the series Rosemary and Thyme ; yet another adaptation of the romantic perennial Rebecca (a haunting prelude for cello and orchestra); the family-styled Pollyanna (full of the usual good tunes); two individual Poirot episodes— The Hollow and Five Little Pigs— and finally an obscure British film (never issued here), Lighthouse Hill.
The most impressive compilations here are drawn from two somewhat better-known films, the romantic dramas Firelight of 1997 and When the Whales Came, the earliest score included, from 1989, where Gunning’s use of an eerie soprano vocalise recalls Vaughan Williams’s Scott of the Antarctic music. Both of these emphasize Gunning’s exceptionally scenic imagination and his natural gift for the telling and memorable theme garbed in a lustrous orchestration.
As always in this series, conductor Rumon Gamba, the BBC Philharmonic, and the Chandos recording staff offer this endlessly appealing music in the best possible light. Anyone who loves the traditional school of English music will not be disappointed.
FANFARE: Paul A. Snook
The case of Christopher Gunning has been well and truly taken up by Chandos. Last year we had two of his six symphonies and the oboe concerto (review). Now the genre that brought him to wide attention is tackled.
It's mostly suave music for television. We start with the Poirot Variants for sax and orchestra. This is a combination he has tackled before in On Hungerford Bridge on ASV (review). A smooth fantasy touches on train rhythms, Buenos Aires dance-halls and a worldly romantic lassitude. Martin Robertson's saxophone presents the music without rough edges, subtle and undulating: not a trace of rasp. La Môme Piaf - 2007 film – quite rightly fears no cliché in deploying the accordion. It's all very romantic. Under Suspicion leaves such smoothness behind in a gruff nightmare-image speaking of the ruptured emotional landscapes of late Malcolm Arnold … though tenderness does arrive. The Cold Lazarus (1996) music is at first ascetic and doom-laden with whip-like dactyls reaching out. From this Fahrenheit 451 chill arises the most glorious romantic theme - almost Born Free or Howard Hanson Second Symphony. The Rosemary and Thyme Caprice has the closely recorded Craig Ogden confiding Scarborough Fair to the listener in an English countryside evocation. Rebecca showcases the cellist Julia Bradshaw in another dark-clouded piece completely in keeping with the brooding and intensely romantic spirit of the Daphne du Maurier book. It's well worth hearing. Innocent folk voices abound in Pollyana which is heavily freighted with charm. Woodwind solos and piano are prominent. Firelight - 1997 film - is among his most popular scores yet is quite low key and contained. This is not a grand statement and the music is heavily characterised by Yuri Torchinsky's tremblingly vulnerable violin. When the Whales Came - 1989 film - is quite naturally threaded through with the spirit of the sea. There are added elements such as a slowed whale-song recording (like Hovhaness and George Crumb, in that sense only) and a vocalising soprano. The Hollow and Five Little Pigs are from Poirot episodes. The first is very romantic and memorable. The second is sly and ambivalent in mood as voiced by the solo violin. Lighthouse Hill - film, 2004 - is again hyper-romantic and rounded in its progress. I was rather sad that there was nothing here from Geoffrey Household's Rogue Male or from Porterhouse Blue or from Middlemarch.
A wide soundstage complements a lavish audio image each of which articulates the often simple textures yet meets with a fierce embrace the grander statements.
-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier / Schornsheim
REVIEW:
German harpsichordist and pianist Christine Schornsheim has been making CDs for many years now; I’m mostly familiar with her collaborations with non-period performers such as tenor Peter Schreier and the German oboist and conductor Burkhardt Glaetzner. In fact, the only decidedly “period” CD of hers in my library is a Harmonia Mundi recording of Mozart four-hand music made a few years ago with pianist Andreas Staier on a Stein Vis-à-vis piano/harpsichord. Based on this admittedly limited experience, I was not prepared for the excellence of this release, nor for the depth of her understanding of Bach.
Complete recordings of the Well-Tempered Clavier have been coming fast and furious of late; one need only scan the 70-plus listings of Book I on ArkivMusic to see that the music has attracted harpsichordists and pianists of every stripe and persuasion. Since joining the staff of Fanfare , I’ve personally surveyed four versions, the most exceptional of which is undoubtedly Rebecca Pechefsky’s recording of Book 1 on Quill Classics, reviewed in Fanfare 34:3. The first hint that Schornsheim’s version might be a cut above the ordinary comes in her personal observations about the project, contained in the liner notes: “ The Well-Tempered Clavier has always had a healing effect on me. Whenever I felt bad, I sat down at the nearest keyboard and played fugues.” She goes on to say that despite being an immense challenge, recording the 48 plus 48 has cleansed her soul and given her inner peace. One could interpret this as mere advertising jargon, but I don’t think so. The sincerity of these statements is borne out entirely by the integrity and honesty of the playing on these CDs.
It may surprise you to learn that I don’t automatically subscribe to the early-music dictum that the WTC can be played only on the harpsichord. Like any instrument, the harpsichord has its pluses and minuses, and in the hands of a lesser artist, the harpsichord is ruthless in revealing weaknesses in phrasing and technique. (It’s also very easy to sound dull and mechanical on the harpsichord.) The modern piano, on the other hand, with its damper pedal and increased resonance, is less restricting for many artists, allowing for a freer interpretive approach—or so they think. The best artists, of course, can turn a handicap into advantage. Schornsheim capitalizes on the strengths of the harpsichord in ways that are often hard to verbalize, such as the almost imperceptible changes in articulation—which would be lost on the more resonant modern piano—that set one voice against another in a fugue, or the minute applications of rubato that make sense of the rhetoric of a prelude. It is a style of playing grounded in intense study of and appreciation for Bach’s music, but one that never sounds labored, forced, or unnatural. There is nary a misjudged tempo or instance of flagging inspiration here; throughout Books 1 and 2 the level of accomplishment is remarkably high. In the international arena of Bach performance, I predict that this release will enjoy immediate and widespread favor.
Another reason for the serious record collector to consider the acquisition of this set is the choice of instrument. It is the 1624 two-manual Ruckers (enlarged in France in the 18th century) housed in the Musée Unterlinden, Colmar. The instrument has been the subject of numerous recordings, most recently a Centaur CD of Couperin played by Lisa Goode Crawford ( Fanfare 35:4). It is simply one of the most magnificent-sounding French harpsichords in captivity, and it has never been recorded more intelligently and realistically than it is here. Highest recommendation.
FANFARE: Christopher Brodersen
Bach: Well-tempered Clavier / Evelyne Crochet
BACH The Well-Tempered Clavier ? Evelyn Crochet (pn) ? MUSIC & ARTS CD-1180 (4 CDs: 259:36)
The last I?d heard of Evelyn Crochet was on my turntable last year, when I listened once again to her cycle of Fauré?s piano music on Vox LPs issued during the 1960s. In their own quiet, understated way, I think they remain among the pleasures of that audio period, both for their sensitivity and core of robust strength. Now, Music & Arts has released a 2002 recording of the complete Well-Tempered Clavier featuring Crochet. When our beloved Editor mentioned it, I immediately requested a copy for review?despite knowing that present day disappointments from respected artists of yore do occur, and more often than we care to admit.
My concerns were largely unjustified, however. Crochet is in excellent form. She offers gracious playing, unsentimental but not without warmth when required, as the serenely smiling E?-Major Prelude (Book 2) demonstrates. Another Prelude, that of B? Major (Book 1), demonstrates the state of her current technique with fleet, perfectly even passagework. The chords that break and resolve the linear movement aren?t milked in the Romantic manner, but allowed to fall naturally in place.
So an informed style is a factor in these performances, as it was in Crochet?s Fauré. The C-Major Prelude, the one that leads off the entire set, is again luminous while avoiding anachronisms: the bass line makes its vital presence known without drawing undo attention, and discreet changes in dynamics between each repetition of the arpeggiated cell facilitate the music?s flow without drawing attention to themselves. It is an example the pianist gives repeatedly throughout the album.
If I find the fugues overall just slightly less good, it?s because of the more incisive voicing offered by Angela Hewitt in her recording (Hyperion CDA 67301/2, CDA 67303/4). Crochet?s approach seems more generalized in the slower, calmer fugues, including the one in C Minor (Book 2). These are subtle performances where minute changes in tempo, volume, articulation, or dominance between the hands create the final effect, and the fugal textures are downplayed a bit too much for my taste. That noted, those fugues that offer what we would consider a more expressive character are highly enjoyable under her hands. To the A-Major Fugue (Book 1), for example, Crochet supplies a puckish, almost truculent humor that results from the sharp accent given to the first note, contrasted against the delicate filigree work in the left hand.
The miking is close, always a good thing where the piano is concerned, but with a slightly glassy sound in loud passages, and a slightly dull one in quieter moments. The liner notes provided by Crochet appear aimed at musical novices, but would they really form the natural audience for this release? In any case, these are quibbles that shouldn?t stand in the way of purchasing this attractive set. It offers no revelations but solid, inspired music-making, and that?s enough for me.
FANFARE: Barry Brenesal
