Sir Alexander Campbell MACKENZIE (1847-1935)
Complete Music for Solo Piano - Volume Two
Rustic Scenes, op.9 (1876) [13:11]
Five Pieces, op.13 (1877) [16:04]
Sehnsucht (1862) [02:43]
Ungarisch (1862) [03:37]
Odds and Ends – Par ci, par là, op.83 Books 1 & 2 (1916) [12:31]
Fantasia, op.70 (1909) [16:55]
Christopher Howell (piano)
rec. 2017/18, Studios of Griffa & Figli s.r.l., Milan, Italy
SHEVA COLLECTION SH229 [64:52]
The second volume in this series reprises the programmatic ideas of the first; two sets dating from 1876-77 and a later 1916 work, that includes the 1909 Fantasia and two ‘prentice pieces from 1862. Avoidance of chronology allows a convincing recital to develop and to follow, as far as possible, a development in Mackenzie’s art, from conventional mid-century influences such as Schumann and Chopin to the whiff of the near-radicalism of the war years.
His student works, which form a kind of diptych, offer a mobile but quietly melancholy piece contrasted with a rather polite and polished Czardas. With Rustic Scenes, his Op.9 of 1876 we approach the kind of watercolour charm that would adorn the walls of a Victorian parlour. There’s a charming rustic dance, a Forester’s Song with some Scottish snaps, a surprisingly rapt and richly melodic reverie in the shape of a Curfew and a fast, slightly florid Harvest Home to finish. The following year came the baldly-titled Five Pieces, Op.13 This is altogether more sophisticated and aspires to a greater level of creativity. The opening Impromptu is infused with a quiet melancholy and whilst the succeeding Gigue has its generic moments, the third panel, a Saga, has hints of Chopin, a composer that haunted his early writing, as did Schumann. The more defined bardic chords in this piece show it as the serious, central marker of the five, exemplifying a deft use of contrast and space. The flirtatious Viennese La Coquette is followed by the finale, a pleasant if not notably original Evening in the Fields.
Unlike the Op.13 set Mackenzie went slightly overboard when he called his 1916 Op.83 set, cast in two books, Odds and Ends – Par ci, par là not least because they’re not quite as trivial as the throwaway title might lead one to think which is, perhaps, after all, the point. There are four pieces in total, two in each book, strongly contrasted with a quiescent Refrain prefacing a vigorous High Spirits. As Christopher Howell writes in his erudite booklet notes Telling a Story, a Schumannesque kind of title in itself, houses some enlivening harmonies as well as strong rolled chords. The Pavane and Musette sports a modernistic sheen without being in any way too knowing.
The final, piece is the Fantasia, Op.70, a 17-minute example of the composer’s elevated compositional skill and by some way a case of saving the best for last. As an orchestrally conceived quasi-sonata that demarcates into clear fast-slow sections with a distinct scherzo, Howell characterises it as ‘the major piano work Elgar never wrote’ noting the similarity of the opening theme to the start of Elgar’s First Symphony. It’s almost certainly the single most impressive piece in this three CD survey of Mackenzie’s complete solo piano music and has the great advantage of a powerfully engaged performance that conveys its complex structure and attractive themes so well.
As with the first volume there is much to admire here. Not everything is of the highest interest, it’s true, but that’s an inevitable corollary of recording a body of work in toto. The best is fascinating.
Jonathan Woolf
Previous review: John France
