Buy through MusicWeb for £12.50 postage paid World-wide.

Musicweb Purchase button

Stephen DODGSON (b. 1926)
Dialogues - The Music of Stephen Dodgson, Vol. 2
Dialogues, for guitar and harpsichord (1976) [11:44]
The Troubled Midnight, for guitar (1990) [4:18]
Suite No. 1, for clavichord (1967, rev. 2006) [15:53]
Suite No. 2, for clavichord (1969, rev. 2006) [12:42]
Sketchbook, for two lutes (1983) [14:48]
Roberto Morón Pérez (guitar); Julian Perkins (clavichord); Pawel Siwczak (harpsichord); Elizabeth Kenny (lute); Jacob Heringman (lute)
rec. Turner Sims Concert Hall, University of Southampton, U.K., 11-13 August 2008
CAMPION CAMEO 2088 [59:25]

The anonymous writer of the booklet notes accompanying this issue makes much of the fact that Stephen Dodgson is a composer who relishes commissions. Indeed the list of musicians for whom he has written is an impressive one. For those who know his music only slightly, it is probably the music for guitar, and his collaboration with John Williams, that will come to mind. Two concertos, for example, were composed for Williams, and recorded by him for CBS. He is a most versatile composer, however, and if the majority of his works are on a small scale this is again a reflection of the fact that he usually composes to order. Larger scale works have appeared - I remember attending a concert in the seventies in which Denys Darlow conducted a Te Deum, for example - but the twenty-five short pieces which make up the works on this disc seem more typical of him than more extended forms.

Allied to his willingness, perhaps even a preference, to compose for particular musicians, is a highly developed sense of craftsmanship, ensuring that the music is perfectly suited to the forces employed. As a teacher, for example, he insisted that music written for harpsichord should not look like that written for piano. The works on this disc attest to that skill, but one would be wrong to stop there, as any listener who takes the trouble to do so will discover music which is in itself both challenging and beautiful.

The first Suite for clavichord was composed in 1967, but, like the second, which dates from 1969, was extensively revised after the composer attended a meeting of the British Clavichord Society in 2006 and was struck anew by the instrument’s scope and potential. Listening to this fastidious music one gains the impression that it was not the composer’s intention to reinvent the instrument for the twentieth century, and even less to indulge in any kind of neo-classical exercise. Nonetheless, the titles of the eight short movements - Little Fanfare, First Air, Plaint, Pantomime, Greater Fanfare, Second Air, Tambourin, Last Air - give a clue to the nature of the music, and the use of dotted rhythms and other, less easily defined stylistic features, brings to the music an unmistakeable Elizabethan flavour. Dodgson’s musical language is quite individual, and even here, writing for what Frank Dawes - quoted in the booklet - described at “that gentlest of keyboard instruments”, the “twangy” nature of the writing which so impressed John Williams is certainly present. Some of these pieces are easily taken in on a first hearing, the beautiful and tonally expressed Second Air, for example, and the grave and brooding opening fanfare. Then the closing fanfare, calm and resolved, admirably demonstrates the composer’s mastery of narrative drama, even within such a short piece. This is not, though, music which gives up its secrets easily, but it will reward, and richly, those who are patient enough to live with it for a while. Suite No. 2, just as rewarding, is even a slighter tougher nut. Among the six movements one signals the dotted rhythms which again feature in the Overture, and the Second Fanfare, which features sturdy triplets passed between the hands. A Fancy follows, touching and elusive, and precedes the final, exuberant Round Dance. There is a certain darkness here, and in spite of the Frank Dawes comment quoted above, this is surprisingly muscular music.

Toughness and darkness are also features of the piece for guitar and harpsichord, Dialogues. Quite a lot of the writing gives prominence alternately to one of the instruments whilst the other accompanies, and the title of the work is derived from this. The opening and closing movements are forceful, enclosing two which are calmer and more obviously expressive.

The jewel in this set is probably Sketchbook for two lutes. It began life as two pieces, Ricercar and Cantilena, composed Chris Wilson and Tom Finucane and so much appreciated by them that four other pieces were later added. (The booklet notes refer to “an accumulation of contrasted pieces rather than a structured sequence.”) The composer was apparently uncertain about this commission, but the resulting music is, once again, perfectly suited to the rather unusual medium. Ricercar is now the first piece of the six, and is a perfect miniature, expertly balanced and timed, quite simply, an exquisite little gem. In the second piece, Their Separate Ways, each instrument is given music of a different character, the one calm and reasoned, the other nervous and unsettled. I think calm reason wins, though the other voice is hardly silenced. There is a short, witty Fughetta before the two final pieces, Plaint and Farewell, each of which explores a wider harmonic vocabulary than the earlier pieces, producing thereby a certain melancholy not at all at odds with accepted notions of the instrument and its Elizabethan associations.

If one discounts the revisions of the two Suites, the most recent music on this disc is the guitar solo The Troubled Midnight. Commissioned by an Italian publishing house, this is, as its title would suggest, a nocturne, but one in which the calm of the night is disturbed by troubled thoughts. The piece never once steps out of its night-time apparel, yet a wide variety of guitar techniques is employed. It closes on a gently strummed, comforting chord which, coming almost by surprise, as it were out of the blue, leaves the listener to sit on in silence with nothing resolved, though a little wiser, perhaps, than at the beginning.

The composer is named as co-producer of this disc, so we can be sure that the excellent recorded sound met his requirements. He will surely have been happy with the performances too, as they seem quite beyond criticism. It isn’t absolutely clear from the booklet which of the remarkable keyboard players is at the harpsichord and which at the clavichord, but after much searching I think the credits above are probably correct. The booklet notes are excellent. In brief, anyone interested in music of the utmost integrity, always very individual and often very beautiful, should not hesitate.

William Hedley 

correspondence received

As the recording producer of the CD 'Dialogues - The music of Stephen Dodgson, Vol.2' so appreciatively reviewed today by William Hedley I would just like to point out a mistake in the artist listing on the disc. The harpsichordist (in Dialogues for guitar and harpsichord) is Pawel Siwczak, while the two Suites for Clavichord are played by Julian Perkins.

This was not a mistake by the reviewer (now corrected), but an oversight by whoever compiled the booklet: as Mr Hedley points out, it isn't made clear which keyboard player is which.

Many thanks for all your work in bringing us so much valuable and well-informed musical comment, and all for free!

All best wishes,

John Taylor

Return to Review Index