Divine Art cannot be faulted on generosity
or originality. This disc runs close
to eighty minutes and the mix is a spicy
one.
The artistry of this
piano duo is never in doubt. They have,
after all, been playing together for
more than two decades. There are many
recordings by them and Divine Art's
catalogue alone carries eleven of their
CDs including such rare birds as the
four-hand versions of Tchaikovsky 4
(now that I would like to hear!)
and Dvořák
9.
Adam Gorb's five movement
suite of Yiddish Dances was originally
written for symphonic wind orchestra.
The themes are original yet have an
idiomatic and convincing springiness,
twist and convulsion. Continuing the
Jewish stratum the envoi is Joseph Achron's
Hebrew Melody which is profound,
reverential and soulful. Clemmow and
Goldstone catch the otherworldly chime
of this trickily complex music. Certainly
not the piece of fluff and sparks we
might expect from Achron's violin solos.
This is more in keeping with the music
on his Milken Naxos CD.
More conventional,
but no less entertaining, we have Saint-Saens'
Caprice Arabe. This is unmistakably
Saint-Saens at 1:43 but overall, while
a polished work, it lacks the barbed
interest of some of the other tracks
here. It was written in the Canaries
in 1894 by a composer who was to die
in Algeria and who had many holidays
in North Africa. Gliere's perfumed Orientale
is like the Saint-Saëns - a salon
charmer.
The Russian ‘take’
on the Orient is represented by Borodin's
In the Steppes of Central Asia
which is well known. While here it is
lovingly accented and spun the work
is ideally heard in the version for
full orchestra. I wonder if there are
two piano versions of Ippolitov-Ivanov's
Caucasian Sketches and Lyapunov's
Hashish.
Holst's Beni Mora
is a souvenir of a holiday with
Bax and Balfour Gardiner in Spain and
North Africa. I first heard the piece
in its natural orchestral finery. There
was the Lyrita Boult LP recording; then
the astonishingly impressive Malcolm
Sargent version on a 10 inch LP. The
arrangement here works very well indeed.
The crystalline pellucid orchestral
original transcribes superbly for the
two pianos with its hypnotic repetition
and occasional mystery. It's only in
the eruptive quasi-Hispanic climaxes
that the limitations of four hands kicks
in. The transcription is by Nora Day
who with Vally Lasker served as Holst's
music assistants at St Paul's Girls
School where Holst was music director
1905-1934. The score still required
some editing by Goldstone but the results
are convincing. This duo and Divine
Art have also recorded Lasker's two
piano version of Holst's Japanese
Suite on 25024.
Colin McPhee was an
early student of Balinese Music and
this and his Tabuh-Tabuhan are
indebted to the years he spent in Bali
in the 1930s. Britten recorded Balinese
ceremonial music with McPhee. Britten's
own Prince of the Pagodas patently
acknowledges the music of Bali and the
gamelan. Britten peeks out of the Taboeh
teloe finale.
Toughest of all here
is John Mayer's Sangit almkara suite
which is in five movements. Here the
oriental voice is Indian. While not
going as far as Charpentier’s Messiaenic
Karnatic cycle this music, with its
skirls and scarps and potent strangeness,
is memorable. The theme is not hidden.
Exoticism is the keynote. I especially
liked the accessible Jawab Sawal
and the Gaud Mallar Taan finale
with its vaguely Scottish accent.
Albeit the music looks
in on the locale from the outside this
is a generous, colourful and provocative
collection of pieces with an oriental
theme. It is very well documented by
Anthony Goldstone.
Rob Barnett
see also review
by Jonathan Woolf
Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow (pianos)
piano duet* two pianos** 
