Born in Romsey in 1960, Martin Butler has proved to be
one of our most accomplished yet accessible composers; yes,
one can do both! Butler readily
soaks up influences from across the musical spectrum and then
moulds them into something essentially Butler-esque. He is a
composer not afraid to write a good melody nor to show a sense
of humour. He is currently Professor of Music at the University
of Sussex
near Brighton. How fitting that this recording should have been made
in nearby Champs Hill, near Pulborough, West
Sussex.
Many of Butler’s traits as a composer were shown to good effect on
Lorelt’s CD LNT 104, Tin Pan Ballet, dedicated to his
music way back in 1993. Like the title work on this CD, the
Lorelt CD included one of several of Butler’s pieces
to be inspired by the landscapes and, more particularly, the
folk music of the United
States: Bluegrass Variations (other works of this kind
including Hootenanny and Down-Hollow Winds). American
Rounds is a thirteen-minute piano quintet. The first two
movements are derived from Three Little Folk Games, written
in 1995. As often in Dvořák, for example, this music is
more about invoking a mood rather than reworking real folk music
the mood and although the melodic shape of folk music is suggested,
no actual folk tunes are quoted.. Butler achieves an appealing
‘American sound’ in American Rounds and one is minded
of John Adams in the second movement, a little of Aaron Copland
in the third, while the fourth sounds like it could quite happily
accompany a good, old-fashioned hoe-down.
American Rounds
was commissioned by the Schubert Ensemble in 1998 and has received
many performances around the world since then. It was the first
of several pieces on this disc which have come about from the
special relationship forged between ensemble and composer, the
others being the Sequenza Notturna, Funérailles,
and the two River Songs extracted from Butler’s chamber opera A Better Place. It is curious
that the tempo markings for the four movements of American
Rounds, clearly evident in the music and in Butler’s own notes on the piece, are curiously omitted by NMC
in the track listings in the accompanying booklet, only listing
them as I, II, III and IV.
Also written for the Schubert Ensemble were the Two
Scarlatti Sonatas, the only other pieces on this CD for
the full quintet complement. These provide a charmingly contrasted
pair – the first lively and upbeat, the second hushed and mysterious.
It turns out that these miniatures are a tribute to that master
of artful transcription, Luciano Berio (1925-2003), as is the
piano quartet Sequenza Notturna, written for the Schubert
Ensemble in the month following the announcement of the great
Italian composer’s death. A favourite technique of Berio’s was
to base a piece upon a melodic fragment which was largely or
wholly hidden or disguised throughout the duration of work,
only to be revealed (sometimes!) at the very end. Butler uses this
procedure in Sequenza Notturna, weaving a fragment of
monody in and out of the melodic and textural structure of this
evocative piece, only to reveal itself in the final climax.
Both Martin Butler and the writer of the excellent booklet notes,
John Fallas, suggest that the mood towards the end of the piece
suggests Moorish Spain. I can see what they mean!
Butler’s artistic
relationship with the Schubert Ensemble has also produced small-scale
pieces for fragments of the group, including the two lovely
pieces derived from Butler’s
chamber opera A Better Place – Siward’s River Song
for solo cello and Suzanne’s River Song for violin and
piano. The first of these is a fascinating soliloquy with the
mood of a lament with music based on a musical motto connected
with the drowned Thames lighterman Siward, whose spectral presence dominates
the opera. A wonderful touch is the tapping on the body of the
solo cello which evokes ‘the hollow creakings and resonances
of old Thames timbers’,
according to the composer. Schubert Ensemble cellist Jane Salmon
gets deep inside this music and plays most beautifully. The
companion piece, Suzanne’s River Song, with Simon Blendis
as violinist, is more straightforward in construction, being
a transcription for violin and piano of music from the opera
associated with the main character and her relationship with
the river. It shares a melodic motive with Siward’s song which
unifies this lyrical diptych.
Butler also wrote
some solo piano pieces for the Schubert Ensemble’s pianist William
Howard. In the composer’s list of works Nathaniel’s Mobile
is dated 1995, which pre-dates the beginning of the composer’s
association with the Ensemble. This piece effectively contrasts
sections of unpredictable stepwise motion with slow-moving chords.
Funérailles is a much more significant piece. Superficially
similar to Nathaniel’s Mobile, it contrasts chordal sections
– here faster and more bell-like in a fashion that sometimes
reminded me of Messiaen’s piano works - with slower sections
which seem to thoroughly explore the musical possibilities of
its material in a deeply satisfying way.
The final work on this disc is another of Butler’s works
for a ‘fragment’ of the Schubert Ensemble – this time viola
and piano. Walden Snow is another of Butler’s ‘American’ pieces. Described by the composer as a
‘peaceful prayer’, this is a brief, lyrical picture postcard
of Walden Pond, near
Concord, Massachusetts and is played most eloquently by Douglas Paterson.
The Schubert Ensemble has been active since 1983 and
is based on the piano, violin, viola, cello, double bass combination
of the Trout Quintet by the composer which gives the
Ensemble its name. It boasts an impressive discography and this
latest addition to its catalogue is a breath of fresh air. The
playing and musicianship are faultless and the recording is
superb to match, making this a highly recommendable disc for
anyone remotely interested in 20th and 21st
century chamber music.
Derek
Warby
see also Review
by Hubert Culot September RECORDING
OF THE MONTH