Percy & Friends: The Music of Grainger and his Circle
Richard Masters (piano)
rec. 2019, Squires Recital Salon, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA
HERITAGE HTGCD179 [67:49]
The composers represented on this CD, except Delius, are usually known as the Frankfurt Group. Roger Quilter, Henry Balfour Gardiner, Cyril Scott, Percy Grainger and Norman O'Neill all studied during the late 1890s at the Hoch Conservatoire in Frankfurt with German composer Iwan Knorr (1853-1916). All of them became important, if neglected, composers. The best remembered is Percy Grainger.
This remarkable recital opens with Summer Evening by Roger Quilter, best known for his many songs. This piece is a perfect evocation of a misty twilight, gentle birdsong and the English landscape. It was dedicated to Quilter’s friend Charlotte Emelia Bellot, who at that time was dying.
A glance at the catalogue in Stephen Lloyd’s 1984 study of Henry Balfour Gardiner reveals the sad fact: much of his music remains in manuscript, and many holographs have been lost. A few published piano pieces include Shenandoah and other pieces, and an album of Five Pieces. The first number on this CD is the Graingeresque Con Brio, which fairly galumphs along. The Adagio is a deeply felt elegy, full of sadness and regret. The last of Balfour Gardiner’s pieces also inhabits Percy Grainger’s world: the Gavotte has all the bounce and rhythmic vitality of Mock Morris and Shepherd’s Hey.
The pianist Richard Masters chose a diverse set of pieces from Cyril Scott’s considerable opus of piano music. I have always loved the Commedia dell'arte characters of Pierrot and Pierrette. Whether it is art, ballet, music or literature, I have enjoyed their love affairs and escapades. The two pieces here reflect Pierrot’s sadness and introspection, and Pierrette’s coquetry and vivacity. And remember that Pierrette rivalled Columbine in seeking Pierrot’s affections.
I love how the liner notes present Scott’s take on the C. E. Horn’s well-known tune Cherry Ripe. It is described as a ‘decadent harmonisation’. I think that it is just quite simply delicious. Rainbow Trout is one of Scott’s best loved pieces. With nods to Scriabin and Debussy, this is a perfect impressionistic number. Pianist and Cyril Scott expert, Leslie De’Ath, notes that the composer ‘bestows upon this particular trout “arcane dignity – perhaps even wisdom” that may be related to Scott’s belief in the transmigration of souls’. A precious thought.
Norman O’Neill is recalled (if at all) for his incidental music for the West End Theatre. The best remembered example is his score for J. M. Barrie’s play Mary Rose. There were other compositions, including orchestral pieces and chamber music. A few piano works have clung on, including the charming piano suite In the Branches and the Four Songs without Words. Both are in the gift of amateur pianists. I had not heard the Deux Petites Pieces op.27 before. The first is an introspective Romance that sounds surprisingly profound followed by a Gigue that should really have been a bourrée. No matter, these two pieces show that technically straightforward pieces can be enjoyable, satisfying and effective. It is how they are played that counts, not their virtuosity. Perhaps Richard Masters may turn his considerable talent towards the ‘easy’ pieces by Alex Rowley, Felix Swinstead and Thomas Dunhill. This is a seam of British piano music waiting to be mined.
Frederick Delius’s In a Summer Garden is one of my favourite pieces of orchestral music – and, for the record, in the version by Anthony Collins and London Symphony Orchestra. Although (probably) inspired by the composer’s garden in Grez-sur-Loing, for me it is always an English garden somewhere just to the north of York… I accept that Percy Warlock / Philip Heseltine’s piano transcription of this work is effective. I just do not get it. It does not cast its magical spell. No doubt others will disagree. Nevertheless, it is good to have this transcription on CD.
Percy Grainger’s Bridal Lullaby is a delight. Written for Karen Kellerman as a wedding gift, it reflects ‘what might have been’. Percy and Karen had a love affair for many years, typically carried out by letter and stymied by his mother. Shepherd’s Hey is one of the best known of Grainger’s works. The material for this piece was culled from a Morris Dance with variations collected by Cecil Sharp in Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire. The tune is very much like The Keel Row from Tyneside. Like many Grainger works. it was dished up in several versions. Shepherd’s Hey is probably most often heard in its orchestral or wind band incarnation.
The beautiful Colonial Song movingly recalls the scenery and the people of Grainger’s native Australia. The jaunty melody of Spoon River has a convoluted pedigree. It was jotted down back in 1857 at Bradford, Illinois by a certain Captain Charles H. Robinson. This was later sent to Edgar Lee Masters, the author of the Spoon River Anthology published in 1915. Masters introduced Percy Grainger to this short melody. Basically, it conforms to Constant Lambert’s definition of folksong – play it once, then play it again louder. Grainger’s take on this is a well contrived effort at presenting the same tune with many subtle changes of harmony and mood.
The thoughtful The Nightingale and the Two Sisters is a concatenation of two rather disparate tunes and musical idea. The Nightingale is a princess who has been ‘freed of a spell by a gallant young knight’ whilst the Two Sisters is a rather gruesome murder plot. This is a profound piece that belies its fairy-tale origins. The final Grainger number is a romp. Scotch Strathspey and Reel uses a collection of Celtic fiddle tunes, underlain by the sea-chanty ‘What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor’. It brings this imaginative programme to a dramatic and boisterous end.
This is a splendid CD. The playing is superb from end to end. The recording of the piano is a touch heavy on the bass, but this does not give too many problems. The liner notes are perfect; they give all the information needed to enjoy this creative recital. I hope to hear many more CDs from the American pianist Richard Masters. It is great that he has caught enthusiasm for British and Commonwealth piano music.
John France
Contents
Roger QUILTER (1877-1953)
Summer Evening, from Three Piano Pieces, op.16 (pub.1916) [5:00]
Henry BALFOUR GARDINER (1877-1950)
Con Brio from Shenandoah and other pieces (1922) [1:42]; Adagio [non troppo] from Five Pieces (1911) [3:53]; Gavotte from Five Pieces (1911) [1:33]
Cyril SCOTT (1879-1970)
Lento (Pierrot triste) from Two Pierrot Pieces, op.35 (1904) [2:40]; Pierrette (1912) [2:20]; Cherry Ripe (1915) [3:11]; Rainbow Trout (1916) [4:46]
Norman O’NEILL (1875-1934)
Deux Petites Pieces, op.27 (1908): Romance [2:53], Gigue [1:35]
Frederick DELIUS (1862-1934)
In a Summer Garden (transcribed by Philip HESELTINE (1894-1930)) (1908/1921) [15:27]
Percy GRAINGER (1882-1961)
Bridal Lullaby (1916) [2:31]; Shepherd’s Hey (1913) [2:27]; Colonial Song (1911) [5:52]; Spoon River (1922) [2:40]; The Nightingale and the Two Sisters (1931) [4:06]; Scotch Strathspey and Reel (1924) [5:13]
