Lynne PLOWMAN (b.1969)
The Beachcomber
Songs of the Sea Dreamer (2017) [10.51]
A Field Guide to Pebbles (2017) [10.58]
Rain (2014) [3.02]
The mermaid’s lagoon (1995) [7.17]
floating turning spinning (2001) [6.39]
Lullaby for Ianto (2007) [4.04]
Another set of footprints in the snow (2018) [3.39]
Michael Bennett (tenor)
Sandrine Charon, Lucy Wakeford (harp)
Jinny Shaw (oboe d’amore)
Joanna Lam (piano)
O Duo (percussion)
rec. Manchester University, September 2002; Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton University, 15 August 2018; Tŷ Cerdd Studio, Cardiff, 14 June and 12 December 2018; Felsted School, Essex, 17 July 2019
PRIMA FACIE PFCD135 [46.30]
It has become relatively common in recent years for CD collections of music by the same composer to adopt the practice of ‘interleaving’ works on the disc – that it, taking multi-movement works and dissecting them into their component parts, inserting pieces from other works into the gaps rather in the manner of a ‘shuffle’ mechanism on a personal stereo. This procedure is of course exclusively available to a CD programme – it would usually be completely impractical in a live concert or recital – but it can result in some interesting and enlightening contrasts if these are carefully managed. On the other hand, if the pieces so juxtaposed are so wildly different from each other that they actually manage to disorientate the listener, then the practice can be a positive deterrent to enjoyment.
This disc interweaves two multi-movement works in the shape of Lynne Plowman’s 2017 song cycle Songs of the Sea Dreamer and her suite written in the same year for percussion duet A Field Guide to Pebbles. The two works were recorded in different sessions and in different venues, and indeed the percussion duet was split between two dates with variations in the players involved. In addition we have two piano works recorded at yet another recent session, and two other works featuring harp recorded as long ago as 2002 but only now receiving commercial release; these tracks too are interspersed between the two multi-movement works.
In principle the contrast between the song cycle and the percussion duo works well, and is enhanced by the fact that Pedalling man, one of the movements of the percussion suite (track3), takes its title from a poem by Russell Hoban who also provided the poems for the songs. But there is a real problem with the contrasted acoustic of the two recordings, with the tenor and harp in Songs of the Sea Dreamer placed close to the microphone in a dry-sounding acoustic while the percussion duettists are heard at a greater distance with more natural resonance. This can lead to quite an aural jolt as we move from one venue to another; and the discrepancy is highlighted by the very much more resonant sound of the solo harp in the 2002 sessions especially at the opening of The mermaids’ lagoon (track 6). The tracks between items on the disc, too, are sufficiently short to make the contrasts immediately apparent.
For reviewing purposes it seems much more sensible to treat each of the works in isolation, and to begin with the percussion duo A Field Guide to Pebbles which provides the greatest number of individual tracks on this CD. Each of the movements rings the changes between two players, either contrasted or (as in Pedalling man, with cowbells and marimba) closely allied in sound. The sounds that Lynne Plowman conjures from her players are often exquisite and enchanting – there are no crude thrashings here – and the team of Owen Gunnell, Oliver Cox and James Harrison blend well and sympathetically. The final track on the CD, Rain, is an independent work for percussion duo and a suddenly erupting tam-tam brings the disc to a rather abrupt conclusion.
In the song cycle, quite apart from the drier and more spiky sound of the harp, the dynamic range of Michael Bennett’s tenor is rather startling. He is also exquisite in the quieter passages – the opening of The Owl-Woman (track 12) is hauntingly beautiful – but then at climaxes such as that of Mermaid (track 4) he seems nearly to be in the listener’s ear, as if one were sitting in the front row at a song recital. I do not know the hall in Southampton University which acted as the recording venue for the session; maybe it really does sound like that. At all events Long, lone is a beautiful song (track 10).
Slightly less immediate is the sound given to Joanna Lam for her two piano solos. One of these is founded on Debussy’s prelude Footsteps in the snow and has a delicious sense of delicacy (track 9). The other, which the composer tells us was written as a lullaby following the birth of her son, leaves the impression that the baby Ianto must have been quite a heavy sleeper, although the expressive outbursts are well-integrated into the music (track 7).
The longest single work on the disc is the harp solo The mermaid’s lagoon, written (as the composer tells us) “when I was just getting started as a composer.” It is a fantastically impressionist picture of a scene from Peter Pan, and the resonances of the harp effects are fascinating in their own right. The harp’s resources are similarly exploited in the accompaniment to an art installation entitled floating turning spinning, where the bent tones of the oboe d’amore add an exotic feeling to the illustration of fractured and crystalline light (track 13). It is a really lovely piece and one would have welcomed a picture in the booklet of the artwork that inspired it.
The artwork on the cover of this imaginative issue is similarly evocative, and the booklet comes not only with the complete texts for the song-cycle but also with notes by the composer in both English and Welsh. The only complaint might be that, because of the manner in which the recordings are fragmented, exactly the same information (performers, commissioners, publishers, recording dates and venues) is continually and exhaustively repeated sometimes as many as six times. But the presentation as a whole is stylish and the music itself is certainly attractive.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
