a
Frances Gray is a Canadian
pianist who "enjoys seeking out
lesser-known composers who may have
been overshadowed by the giants of their
time". She would also appear to
have a liking for making up "theme"
programmes from their work, since the
present disc reached me with another,
"Poems for Piano" on which
I will be commenting later. She certainly
shows here that the vast repertoire
of British, Canadian and American shorter
piano pieces with evocative titles can
provide a worthwhile sequence of mostly
little-known music ("Lotus Land"
was once hugely popular and "Windmills"
and "The Island Spell" were
standard "contemporary" choices
for diplomas with the British academies
in the days when they could still be
called contemporary).
Gray plays her chosen
pieces with a consistently warm and
rounded tone, comfortable tempi that
allow clear enunciation of rapid passage-work
and complete technical ease. The effect
is always warm and musical, to which
virtues can be added those of a rich,
full-toned recording. The recital gets
off to a powerful start with William
Baines’s often amazingly original (for
their context) pieces. Or perhaps at
this stage I was still rejoicing in
the disc’s virtues, for doubts started
creeping in gradually. All the qualities
I have enumerated above make a good
starting-point, but it becomes increasingly
evident that this is the style on offer
and it is dished out in exactly the
same way regardless of the music in
hand. Thus the playful first Prelude
of Delius is slow and heavy for its
"Scherzando" marking – surely
it should sound like a leaf blown hither
and thither in the wind – and Moeran’s
"Windmills" revolve with a
steadiness which suggests Gray is unfamiliar
with the gusty air currents of the composer’s
beloved East Anglia. The marking is
"Presto" and this, to my ears,
is no more than "Allegro".
Furthermore, there is no real attempt
to "orchestrate" the music
so when the melodic interest is not
in the upper voice things fare badly.
Thus the beautiful melody of Moeran’s
"Irish Love Song" emerges
only fitfully from its rich surroundings
and the lapping waters of the same composer’s
"Lake Island" impinge on the
melodic line.
It was also unimaginative
to choose three Scott pieces out of
four in the same vein – ornate arabesques
against a sultry strummed accompaniment
– especially when Gray is apparently
unable to make the regular chords disappear
into a "psychological" background,
their rigid, foursquare presence thus
becoming a millstone around the music’s
neck. In "Rainbow Trout",
by the way, Gray reproduces with slavish
accuracy two obvious misprints in the
score – a missing tie at the end of
the first line of the first page and
a missing "octave higher"
indication on the 4th line
of p.5. With regard to comparisons I
am in the slightly embarrassing position
of having to admit that the only CD
alternative of "Rainbow Trout"
known to me is my own, and it is hardly
for me to say if I managed any better
(a
review of this Tremula disc can
be found on the site). I can comment,
however, that Gray is accorded superior
sound quality. I have also been sent
a cassette transfer of Scott’s own 1928
performance which, unlike his incomparably
poised "Lotus Land" recorded
on the same day, seems uncharacteristically
snatched. But I find that it plays a
semitone sharp so until such time as
a more reliable transfer can be obtained
perhaps it is unfair to judge. All Scott’s
recorded performances except this one
(10 short pieces plus two songs) are
absolutely extraordinary and should
be made available on CD without delay.
Less controversially,
and without potential embarrassment,
I can point out that the middle section
of "The Darkened Valley" sounds
very perfunctory in this performance
and it is quite startling how much more
colour and variety of mood Eric Parkin’s
Lyrita recording (I don’t know his Chandos
remake) finds in this piece. Gray is
pretty exciting in the later stages
of "The Island Spell", but
when you turn to Parkin you realise
(if you hadn’t already from the markings
in the score) that it’s not really a
bravura piece up and down the piano
at all; the magic spell which Parkin
had already established far more potently
grows steadily to an overwhelming climax.
It sounds like another piece of music.
And this is not just Parkin’s idea about
how the music should go; he studied
with the composer.
I didn’t have scores
to hand for the remaining pieces, but
if I found the music only moderately
interesting ("The Lake at Evening",
the first of Griffes’s tone pictures,
is surely too blatant a crib of Ravel’s
recently published "Le Gibet",
from "Gaspard de la Nuit"
to have any artistic validity of its
own) it may well be as a result of similar
shortcomings to those listed above.
I’m sorry to pick such
a lot of holes in what is basically
a nice idea and sympathetically performed
up to a point, but in too many of these
pieces Gray gives us only half the story.
Christopher Howell
see also Poems
for Piano
Frances Gray (piano) 