This disc, reissued in Sony's beautifully packaged
mid-price 'Music for You' series, highlights the contemporary British
composer Howard Skempton at his best and most idiomatic. While his creative
peak, to date, is perhaps represented by his orchestral masterpiece
Lento, these miniatures are probably more representative of his
body of work as a whole and share with Lento a profound ability
to communicate with their audience. Simplicity is the key here, and
the composer's own booklet notes, while bearing little resemblance to
the usual track by track commentary, divide the pieces into two types
- chorale-like or landscapes. In one sense, I can see the logic at work
here but the music encompasses so much more than that stark description
could ever do.
The quintessential pianist for experimental British
music of this vintage, John Tilbury, not only finds within himself performances
that commune completely with works he is playing, but also contributes
a second, highly perceptive booklet note. The composers he chooses to
compare are American (Cage and Feldman) but I would add that anyone
fond of the piano miniatures by the likes of Sculthorpe or Pärt
will find much to please them here. Beyond that, I can, predictably
I suppose, hear the ghost of Satie, by turns playful and solemn, at
work as well.
This is a recital disc first and foremost and it would
be wrong to overanalyse and isolate too many individual elements, some
of which might be diminished by separation but certain tracks/pieces
I cannot let pass me by without particular mention. The opening tribute
to Skempton's teacher Cornelius Cardew is a friendly, unpretentious
homage, whereas the extraordinary music, collected here as Images,
written for a TV series about photography, places Skempton in the wider
context of the English tradition with its incorporation of The Cockfight
(a stunningly beautiful realisation) and, not for the first time with
this composer, a version of The Keel Row. The Durham Strike
reminds us that Skempton is not, unlike many of his contemporaries and,
indeed, predecessors, detached from the real world but succeeds in its
attempts at the transmutation of the daily grind into something more
noble. These ears hear everything from Irish caoines to French
impressionism in five and a half minutes of true genius.
Most of these pieces were written between 1970 and
1981, although they are not individually dated, and now it is surely
time that Skempton gains the recognition he so richly deserves. Like
the often very similarly inspired, though more "rock" aware music of
Brian Eno's younger brother Roger, it positively bleeds artistic integrity
and is what really ought to be playing on Classic FM's "chillout" sessions,
rather than the pseudo-filmic ephemera of Einaudi et al. Absolutely
essential, it reminds me of so many things I love in music, from the
vaults of the ECM back catalogue to the contents of Singing Together
I learnt as a child thirty years ago, this disc is a hymn to life itself.
It will cost you ten pounds and you will love it.
Neil Horner
John Tilbury, piano