Although this disc
takes its title from one of the three
works contributed by Anthony Hedges,
it is the Prelude, Hymn and Toccata
for two pianos of Kenneth Leighton that
is the true tour de force here. The
work dates from the year before Leighton’s
sadly premature death at the age of
fifty nine. It bears his final opus
number although the composer’s widow
states that Leighton was in good health
at the time of its composition and unaware
of any impending illness.
It is difficult not
to listen to this work without reflecting
on the fact that it is based around
the hymn tune Abide With Me.
This in itself was nothing unusual,
for Leighton was a deeply religious
man who produced a large quantity of
fine church music. Hymns were therefore
an inextricable part of his musical
and personal life. That said, the choice
of hymn, given what was around the corner,
is particularly poignant and in so many
ways this piece seems a summation of
all that was integral to Leighton’s
compositional personality.
The hymn tune itself
is buried deep inside the long, profoundly
affecting slow movement. So deep in
fact that I suspect few would be likely
to spot the oblique references, often
fleeting and harmonic rather than melodic.
Yet this is quintessential Leighton,
at once deeply serious, touchingly beautiful
and haunting in its feeling of spirituality
yet rubbing shoulders with passages
of rhythmic dynamism that were an equal
trademark. In the opening Prelude, double
dotted rhythms abound and as this comparatively
short movement progresses phrases are
tossed backwards and forwards between
the two instruments until the initially
uneasy tranquillity of the slow movement
is reached. In the concluding Toccata
the very opening bars immediately bring
to mind the piano music of Messiaen
and John McCabe (track three from beginning)
the latter Leighton’s junior by some
ten years. Indeed on a rhythmic level
at least, comparisons can be drawn between
Leighton’s music and McCabe’s own momentum-charged
writing for the piano. Other than these
few bars however the rest of the movement
is Leighton’s own as for the large part,
with just brief melodic reprieves, the
toccata progresses headlong towards
its startlingly abrupt conclusion. The
sheer energy of the music is finely
mirrored in Anthony Goldstone’s and
Caroline Clemmow’s thrillingly dynamic
performance.
Anthony Hedges is one
of those rare composers that can float
between the worlds of serious music
and light music with total ease and
conviction although he may well be better
known for many for his more popular
excursions. Yet here is proof that his
grittier work can be highly impressive
in its integrity and technique. The
fact that the composer is a fine pianist
is evident in the quality and technical
control of the writing, nowhere more
so than in the impressive solo Sonata,
a robust work cast in three movements.
The allegro of the first movement gradually
emerges from the chordal opening that
sews much of the material for the entire
work. The central movement is essentially
rhapsodic in character and not unlike
the central movement of Explorations
whilst the culminating Allegro vivace
releases the tension in an energetic
summation that builds to a bristling
conclusion (track fifteen, final thirty
seconds). The Three Explorations
were written as recently as 2002 and
explore the wide-ranging possibilities
that can be extracted from a note cell
that is common to each piece. The Five
Aphorisms were written to be played
in a concert marking the opening of
the Anthony Hedges Archive in Hull and
although the five brief pieces pass
through a variety of moods the outer
movements are essentially lively in
style.
Holst’s Japanese
Suite is not one of his better-known
works, possibly overshadowed by the
more familiar Oriental Suite,
Beni Mora. Yet melodically it is
highly attractive and Holst’s treatment
of the old Japanese songs, originally
whistled to him by a dancer, are imaginative
and full of his characteristic rhythmic
and harmonic twists. There is some doubt
as to whether the two piano version
was actually made by the composer himself
and copied by his amanuensis Vally Lasker
or arranged wholly by her; either way
it is both effective and enjoyable.
The opening Prelude (Song of
the Fisherman) is particularly atmospheric
(track seven from 1:30) and returns
for a varied reprise in the central
Interlude. Continuing the oriental
thread Ronald Stevenson’s Two Chinese
Folk-Songs are fleeting (not a characteristic
always associated with this particular
composer!) arrangements of two genuine
Chinese songs. The first, Song for
New Year’s Day is gentle and treated
in canon. The second, Song of the
Crab-fisher, is lively in character
and is given a fun twist by the melody
being treated in counterpoint with its
retrograde; what Stevenson punningly
refers to as a "crab-canon".
It is good to have
these works available on disc and Anthony
Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow give
them all sterling advocacy. It is the
Leighton however that steals the show,
in a recording that also serves as a
fine remembrance of a composer deserving
of the highest esteem.
Christopher Thomas
see also reviews
by Graham
Saunders and Jonathan
Woolf
Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow (pianos)