Don Banks (1923-1980)
Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano (1962)
Five North Country Folk Songs (1953)
Prologue, Night Piece and Blues for Two for clarinet and piano (1968)
Three Studies for cello and piano (1954)
Sonatina in C-sharp minor for piano (1948)
Sonata for violin and piano (1953)
Tirade for mezzo-soprano and chamber ensemble (1968)
Robert Johnson (horn), Ole Bøhn (violin), Jenny Duck-Chong (mezzo-soprano), Francesco Celata (clarinet), Geoffrey Gartner (cello), Rowan Phemister (harp), David Kim-Boyle (siren), Alison Pratt, Daryl Pratt & Joshua Hill (percussion), Daniel Herscovitch (piano)
rec. 2020, Recital Hall West, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Australia
TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC0591 [82]
If I thought about the Australian composer Don Banks at all, it was probably only when picking off the shelf the recording of his Horn Concerto (which Barry Tuckwell premiered in 1965 – review). I also remember his music, in the 1970s I think, on Radio 3’s Music in our Time. Since his sudden early death, I have thought his music had sunk without a trace. It is marvellous, then, to be reacquainted with him. We should, as ever, raise our hats to Martin Anderson and his team for helping us to rediscover this music.
Speaking of the horn, it is the evocative Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano (also written for Barry Tuckwell) that opens this very well filled disc. In fact, we start with a horn ‘whoop’, and then soon after a contrasting lyrical passage, thus emphasising the sense of drama present in most of the works here. This three-movement piece is atonal but not serial. Even so, I find it difficult now to understand, in the light of this Trio, how Banks could have been called ‘an arch-modernist’; things will be different later. He was a pupil of Matyas Seiber but, more significantly I feel, of Luigi Dallapiccola, whose atonal language was often lyrical and deeply emotional. The second movement of the Trio is desolate in many ways but clearly post-Romantic, as is the galloping finale. And, I suppose, since Brahms’s Trio for the same combination was Banks’s inspiration, that thought should not be too far from the mark. It is a terrific start to the programme.
Next, we have five folk songs with words from ‘the north country’. They are Buy Broom Buzzens, My Bonny Lad, King Arthur’s Servants, Bonny at Morn (also set by other composers) and O the Bonny Fisher Lad. The songs are contrasted in tempo and mood. The Brittenesque piano parts are reasonably straightforward – except for the last, brilliantly set. I am not sure if Jenny Duck-Chong is quite the singer I would choose for these pieces but she is nimble-voiced and, mostly, has clear diction. These songs are among Banks’s earliest pieces here.
Banks was a much more eclectic composer than I had realized. His piece for clarinet and piano is testament to the love of jazz inherited from his father. The three movements are short and of roughly even length. A quite aggressively syncopated Prologue is followed by a very personal view of Night Piece. The Blues for Two is of unsettled tonality but clearly jazz-inspired. Matyas Seiber was also influenced by jazz, so here is the musical dilemma which Banks might have faced: another teacher of his, Milton Babbitt, was a definite arch-modernist. Banks was able to compose scores for horror movies, as did such the likes of Elizabeth Lutyens and Buxton Orr, who also worked with the dodecaphonic style typical of the mid-twentieth century.
The next piece is proof of that, and it is more clearly influenced by Schoenberg and Dallapiccola. Three Studies for Violoncello and piano must have seemed very modernist at the time. The opening Andante is brittle and anxious. The Lento espressivo and the following Adagio are based on tone rows but, like his teacher, Banks uses them quite freely; he does include the typical canons and retrogrades. More important, when all is over, the final emotional effect is powerful and brooding.
The earliest work on the disc is the Sonatina in C-sharp minor for piano. Perhaps it should be thought of as a Sonatina around C-sharp minor. The composer performed it in Melbourne just before leaving for his studies in London. It falls into three movements. An almost feverish Sonata-Allegro has suitably contrasting subjects. A fugal Largo con espressione has a rather angular main subject but is beautifully constructed. Finally, a rather strident opening to the Allegro con brio is followed by a choral-like gentle section issuing forth a free rondo form.
The single-movement Sonata for Violin and piano is a work that never really connected with me, although it has fine lyrical passages, especially at about the nine-minute spot. It is atonal and often aggressive. It does, however, become clear on reading the booklet essay that its author, the pianist Daniel Herscovitch, not only knew the composer but was a pupil. So, he gives us a fascinating insight into Banks’s musical demands. The form of the work – which bears some allegiance to classical patterns – offers contrasting material and ends with an exciting if abrupt flourish.
Lastly, we are offered a song cycle. Tirade for mezzo-soprano
and chamber ensemble is a setting of three poems by Alexander Peter
Porter, an Australian who came to London as he felt that artistic encouragement
was not part of Australian society. The ensemble includes thirty percussion
instruments played by three percussionists. This is where the mysterious
siren, played by David Kim Boyle, makes its entry. It is very much a
work of its time. The first part in which one finds the wonderful line
“Ghost towns ghosts won’t visit” uses what the notes
call Sprechgesang. Jenny Duck-Chong, who struggles sometimes
against the ensemble, rather speaks the text which amounts to about
two-thirds of the poem. I cannot say that it works but the next section
beginning with “The land is marked with an ochre line” is
evocative and lyrical. At times, the music of Peter Schulthorpe comes
to mind. The occasionally frenetic third song castigates humans: “one
day there’ll be no inch left we haven’t raped”. This
leads to a wild climax before fading gradually to extinction for the
final twelve lines. All the texts are included.
The musicians – mostly Australian, an excellent idea – do Banks proud. If these performances cannot entice an interest in his music, then nothing will.
Gary Higginson
Previous review: John France
