The toccata notoriously eludes exact definition - perhaps one
should regard it as a gesture towards a certain kind of keyboard
music rather than, strictly speaking,
a term. As John Caldwell observes in Grove, “The toccata principle is found
in many works not so called, and a large number of pieces labelled ‘toccata’ incorporate
other more rigorous styles (such as fugue) or forms (such as sonata form)”.
In introducing what is designated Volume 1 of a series devoted to Post-1900 Piano
Toccatas, the nearest Philip Amalong comes to definition is to write that “Toccatas,
or ‘touch pieces’ are percussive and motoric, splashy and fleeting”.
A toccata is all momentum and spinning motion”. This evokes the essence
of the toccata very well. Conceiving of it in such terms Amalong suggests that
it is “not surprising that toccatas returned to fashion in the 20
th century
as the machine age evolved into the technological age at an ever accelerating
pace”.
This first volume surveys the toccatas of American composers and proves a rich
- and well-programmed - feast of ebullient piano music, though not without sufficient
variety of mood and pace to make it satisfying as a recital disc.
I can honestly say that I found every piece here - almost all of which were new
to me - of interest in one way or another. A few, inevitably, stand out. The
Toccata by Ned Rorem which opens the programme has an impish wit and a fascinating
interplay between some lyrical passages and a gradual building of exultant energy;
Vincent Persichetti’s delightful set of three Toccatinas encompasses both
the rapid headlong runs of the first and the almost Debussian colours of the
third; Menotti’s Ricercare and Toccata begins in a Bachian idiom of dignified
beauty before, in the Toccata, treating the same theme to a florid
moto perpetuo treatment;
Emma Lou Diemer’s Serenade/Toccata opens lyrically and proceeds through
some moments of repose, before building a growing momentum which, after some
complex cross-rhythms, culminates in a hectic conclusion. The Toccata alla Scarlatti
of Raymond Lewenthal - who would surely have relished playing many of these pieces
- is a delightfully ornamented Scarlatti pastiche in 5/8 time - this deserves
an honourable place amongst such twentieth-century hommages to Scarlatti as Kurtág’s
Hommage à D.S., Marcelle de Manziarly’s Hommage à Scarlatti
and Francaix’s piece of the same title.
Elsewhere, such composers as Riegger (with a rapid
moto perpetuo), Fine
(with an elegant piece of neo-classicism), Sowerby (through some intriguing dissonances)
and Harris (with a characteristic piece full of plangent harmonies) are all heard
to good effect. And so are others.
Philip Amalong meets all the technical demands that the music makes upon him,
and plays with impressive bravura in a manner which conveys his evident pleasure
in this kind of music. A little more space around the recorded sound of Amalong’s
Steinway Model D wouldn’t have gone amiss, but this is only a minor quibble
and shouldn’t put anyone off investigating this entertaining exploration
of some (largely) unfamiliar repertoire. Further volumes should be worth looking
out for.
Glyn Pursglove
Track listing
Ned ROREM (b.1923)
Toccata (1948) [2:59]
George ANTHEIL (1900-59)
Toccata No.1 (1948) [1:53]
Lee HOIBY (b.1926)
Toccata, Op. 1 (1949) [5:19]
Irving FINE (1914-1962)
Little Toccata (1958) [1:09]
Leo SOWERBY (1895-1968)
Toccata (1941) [3:27]
Lowell LIEBERMANN (b.1961)
Toccata (1993) [1:07]
George ANTHEIL (1900-59)
Toccata No. 2 (1948) [2:16]
Benjamin LEES (b.1924)
Toccata for Piano (1947) [2:15]
Roy HARRIS (1898-1979)
Toccata (1949) [4:31]
Mark Louis LEHMAN (b.1947)
Toccatina (2007) [2:36]
Gian Carlo MENOTTI (1911-2007)
Ricercare and Toccata on a theme from "Old Maid and the Thief" (1953)
[6:38]
Robert MUCZYNSKI (b.1929)
Toccata for Piano, Op. 15 (1962) [3:20]
Emma Lou DIEMER (b.1927)
Serenade Toccata (1996) [7:36]
Raymond LEWENTHAL (1923-88)
Toccata alla Scarlatti (1975) [3:27]
Wallingford
RIEGGER (1885-1961)
Toccata (1947) [0:56]
Vincent PERSICHETTI (1915-87)
Toccatina No.1 (1980)[2:25]
Toccatina No.2 (1980) [1:56]
Toccatina No.3 (1980) [1:34]
James BASTIEN (1934-2006)
Toccata (1975) [1:33]
Philip Amalong (piano) 
