The Art of Agony: Australian Music for two pianists
Viney-Grinberg Duo
rec. April, July and October 2019, School of Music, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
NAXOS 8.579075 [50:40]
This short recital featuring the pianist duo of Liam Viney and Anna Grinberg, is described by the former in his booklet note, as “mercurially diverse”. That is not the phrase which immediately springs to mind; Pretentiously Eccentric might be more apt. For while much of the music here is decidedly experimental, stretching the potential of the two pianist ensemble in techniques which are, for the most part, exceedingly challenging as much to the listener as to the players, there are a few pieces which seem so utterly incongruous that they stick out like sore thumbs.
Among these incongruous works are the three Easy Piano Duets by Colin Brumby. Written in 1980 and aimed at “very youthful pianists”, the musical language is simple to the point of naivety, and the technical demands so limited that at times one feels that the Viney-Grinberg are struggling to find the right musical level. The fact that Gordon Hamilton wrote his simplistic Lullaby for Liam and Anna’s Kids for the duo on the basis that, as he is quoted as saying in the booklet note, he understands they practice together at home around their children’s bed-time and wanted to create “a simple melody for their kids’ to drift off to”, means they can inject a certain sense of ownership to it, but they are clearly far more in their element with Hamilton’s acerbic, agile and busy Shorter/Longer.
There is a certain delicacy to Kate Neal’s Etude 1, but it does rather sound like two individual pianists practising the same basic musical figures at slightly different times. Whether that was Neal’s original intention or not, it seems to have been what Andrew Ford had in mind with his On Reflection, which keeps the two pianists as far apart physically as possible by presenting much of the material at the opposite ends of the piano range.
Three of the works deliberately move out into more experimental areas. The longest single work in the programme, Matthew Hindson’s Visible Weapon, conveys the violence of its title through much thumping and crashing of cluster chords low down in the range, with a number of electronic effects added, as well as a strangely unexpected distortion of the “Moonlight” Sonata and other musical fragments, along with shouted vocalisations and an underlying rock beat which is intended to reflect today’s “culture of violence-without-consequences”. Non-musical concepts apart, this does make for an exciting and electrically-charged conclusion to the programme, but possibly goes on a little too long. Louise Denson takes electronics several steps further than Hindson by compiling her Mill Life for 22 overdubbed pianos. While the eponymous Mill is a purpose-built structure housing 16 old and well-used upright pianos, Denson also imagines it as a “music factory”, and adds mechanical, factory-type sounds to the plethora of pianos played, strummed and otherwise toyed with. Make of it what you will, but the vision behind it all rather exceeds the musical value.
The third experimental work takes its cue from Percy Grainger, two of whose two-piano folksong arrangements from A Lincolnshire Posy provide a somewhat strange prelude to the programme. Cut into the final bars of “Horkstow Grange”, we hear an archive interview with Grainger himself, in which he describes music as “The Art of Agony” (cue the disc’s title). Robert Davidson takes each utterance of Grainger’s and transforms it into a rhythmic pattern which is then taken up by the two pianists. This was a device used to brilliant effect in Steve Reich’s Different Trains of 1988. I am not sure Davidson has matched the genius of Reich, but it makes for an interesting, if rather eccentric, three-and-a-half minutes’ listening.
Marc Rochester
Contents
Percy Grainger (1882-1961)
A Lincolnshire Posy: Horkstow Grange [2:37]; The Lost Lady Found [2:16]
Robert Davidson (b.1965)
The Art of Agony [3:26]
Andrew Ford (b.1957)
On Reflection [9:38]
Louise Denson (b.1960)
Mill Life [7:55]
Colin Brumby (1933-2018)
3 Easy Piano Duets [3:14]
Gordon Hamilton (b.1982)
Shorter/Longer [4:57]
Lullaby for Liam and Anna’s Kids [2:50]
Kate Neal (b.1972)
Etude 1 [2:50]
Matthew Hindson (b.1968)
Visible Weapon [10:39]
