Joanna MacGregor’s back catalogue is being actively promoted
at the moment. It is, somewhat amazingly, getting on for a quarter
of a century since her first session, which was her American
Piano Classics album, recorded in 1988. And the Michael
Finnissy Gershwin transcriptions there appear in this Gershwin
and Broadway 2 CD slimline set from Warner Classics. Admirers
of the pianist will note that her Goldberg Variations,
her 4 CD Messiaen set, and the Cage-and-Nancarrow twofer are
also available. I recently reviewed her ‘Live in Buenos
Aires’ disc though that didn’t plunder the back
catalogue.
Rhapsody in Blue features her, Carl Davis and the LSO
in their September 1990 recording of the original ‘jazz
band’ version. Tempo rubato is the name of the game here
from the clarinet’s opening statement to MacGregor’s
own flexible responses. It never distends the music or beats
it out of shape however, remaining on the positive side; animated,
driving, though not quite as bright and energetic as the Donohoe-Rattle
performance - to cite just another English-based recording.
They also play the Concerto in F very adeptly too, managing
to ensure that those moments in which attention can wander are
mitigated through a strong sense of characterisation. The profile
of the music-making is engaging, never whirlwind and if that
implies a slight holding-back then maybe that’s so; it’s
not the most sweeping of performances, but it is a good and
thoughtful one.
Finnissy’s Gershwin arrangements are, according to MacGregor,
‘Berg-like’. They’re certainly quite refracted,
and often glacingly allusive too. The second disc gives more
arrangements, this time Broadways ones, sans Gershwin
- the brief MacGregor gave the arrangers was to steer off him.
Each of the four - Django Bates, Finnissy, Gary Carpenter and
Alasdair Nicolson - has something worthwhile to say. Bates’
It’s Only A Paper Moon is refractive, kaleidoscopic,
and also includes some bibulous boogie. Similarly his June
is Bustin’ Out All Over is jam-packed with incident,
virtuosic runs to the fore in a quasi-Lisztian sort of way.
Carpenter prefers a more up-front reworking of Cole Porter’s
My Heart Belongs To Daddy where a sassy, tango-like and
boogie-rich environment flourishes. Finnissy’s Can’t
Help Lovin’ Dat Man is more convoluted, introspective,
and lengthy; elusive and sectional it pays shadow homage. Alasdair
Nicolson meanwhile sprinkles some impressionist droplets over
parts of I’ll Be Seeing You.
The disc ends with four of MacGregor’s own transcriptions.
These are taken down from disc recordings made by jazz pianists
Erroll Garner and Thelonius Monk; Erroll’s Bounce
and Erroll’s Blues inevitably capture the great
man’s style - and big Rachmaninovian stretch. Monk’s
Point and Round Midnight belong to the world of bop
modernism. They all show how taken the young MacGregor was by
these idiosyncratic exemplars.
Jonathan Woolf
Joanna MacGregor (piano) 
