Magical Places - Evocative Symphonic Poems
for Piano Duet
Modest MUSSORGSKY (1839-1881)
Night on Bald Mountain ed. Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov arr. Nikolai Artsybushev
(1866-7) [10:55]
Hugo ALFVÉN (1872-1960)
Midsummer Vigil (Swedish Rhapsody No.1) (1903) [12:16]
Jacques IBERT (1890-1962)
Escales (1922) [14:25]
Anatoly LYADOV (1855-1914)
The Enchanted Lake arr. Vasily Kalafati (1909) [6:13]
Benjamin BRITTEN (1913-1976)
Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes arr. Erwin Stein (1945)
[16:06]
John IRELAND (1879-1962)
The Forgotten Rite (1912-3) [9:16]
Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow (piano duet)
rec. St. John the Baptist Church, Alkborough, North Lincolnshire, England,
2012
DIVINE ART DDA25104 [69:13]
Another disc of the very highest quality from the brilliant Piano Duet team
of Anthony Goldstone and Caroline Clemmow. I repeat what I have written previously;
their discs represent an ideal; superb and often rare music, played with great
technical accomplishment and musical insight. They’re very well recorded
and presented with liner-notes as informative as they are entertaining. My
only quibble with the current issue is the umbrella title of “Magical
Places” which to me implies something slightly fey and twee - a supposition
instantly dismissed as soon as the music starts. In essence the six pieces
are representations of places/times but the main interest - as ever with transcriptions
of orchestral works - is how well they survive the move from full romantic
orchestra to four hands on a single keyboard. There is further interest in
that three of the works are presented in the composer’s own transcription
- the Alfvén, Ibert and Ireland whilst the other three were done by
friends or associates/contemporaries of the composer in question.
Two quick comments to make before discussing the music; as before on Goldstone
and Clemmow discs the quality of the music-making is of the very highest order.
I have nothing but admiration for the performances here. Whether or not one
feels that the transcriptions fully realise the intentions of the original
is a question relating to the transcription not the execution. Such is the
unanimity and absolute accord of the playing that you have to remind yourself
that there are two players here and that they make such light work of the
fearsome complexities of the music presented.
Much as I enjoyed Anthony Goldstone’s superlative recital disc of the
solo piano music of Mussorgsky I have to say the Night on Bald Mountain
has never appealed to me much in any of its guises. What we have here is in
effect a double remove from the composer’s original as the piece is
a piano transcription of the Rimsky-Korsakov [familiar] orchestral version.
I cannot imagine either the performance or transcription being better done
but to my ear it remains an unwieldy piece. One little curiosity; a tubular
bell is added to the score - as it is in the orchestral version - to represent
a church bell marking the hour of dawn. The bell used here is fractionally
out of tune with the piano which doubles the same note resulting in a slightly
jarring effect. For all my disparagement of the work the closing lyrical section
shows perfectly just how effectively the players are able to sustain legato
lyrical lines with the various layers of melody and accompaniment perfectly
balanced and voiced.
I should miss the orchestra more in the next two works - both showpieces
for the modern orchestra and full of brilliantly conceived moments for large
and colourful ensembles. That I don’t shows that, in the right hands,
a good transcription can add to one’s appreciation of a work. The Alfvén
proves itself to be full of wonderfully happy melodies artfully put together
- Nationalist Rhapsodies all too often degenerate into a string of simple
melodies knowingly orchestrated. It is Alfvén’s great skill that
he manages to retain so much of the energy and spirit of the folk-tunes both
in the original version and the one presented here. To quote Anthony Goldstone’s
liner: “for sheer fun it is hard to beat”. I will second that.
The piece I expected to ‘work’ least well in transcription was
the next; Ibert’s Escales (Ports of Call). Too often still
he is a composer disparagingly thought of as a kind of Ravel with jokes. For
sure his strength lies in smaller forms and there is a wit and sophistication
to his writing but it is not all froth and glib superficiality. In the transcription
offered here there appears a work of great sensitivity and harmonic interest.
It is an absolute gem and the piece that emerges with its stature most enhanced
by the extra simplicity the piano duet version endows. Again Goldstone and
Clemmow are a minor miracle of subtlety and shade with the complex filigree
of the writing effortlessly dispatched. A lovely touch is Ibert’s use
of tapping the wood of the piano to substitute for the tambourine of the original
- it’s a simple nuance but a very effective one.
I love Goldstone’s anecdote about Lyadov’s famed indolence. I
had forgotten he received the original commission for Diaghilev’s Firebird
but due to his “legendary procrastination” got no further than
buying some manuscript paper! Rimsky-Korsakov was his teacher until he expelled
Lyadov from his composition class for being incredibly lazy. A personality
trait exacerbated in Goldstone’s words, “[by] his marriage to
a rich lady [which] no doubt contributed to his lack of motivation.”
The muted pastel shades of the Enchanted Lake presented here is a study
in atmosphere and musical colour. Again great credit must go to the players
for their ability to create and sustain such atmospheric effects deprived
of the orchestral resources of the original. The one work that struggles most
with this is Erwin Stein’s transcription of the Four Sea Interludes
from Peter Grimes by Benjamin Britten. So perfect and complete is Britten’s
conception with orchestra and music inextricably linked that Stein struggles
to retain the full impact of the original. Again, there is no question of
the work receiving anything but an excellent performance. Indeed the layers
of the musical argument are forensically revealed but too often Stein has
to fall back onto tremolando chords to sustain harmonic and dynamic tension.
Not even this piano duet team can quite manage to reproduce the teeming flamboyant
orchestral virtuosity of the original.
Given John Ireland’s brilliance as a keyboard composer the quality of
his own version of The Forgotten Rite should come as no surprise. Goldstone’s
liner gives us an insight into the care and consideration which is lavished
on the preparation of this and all their other discs and concert programmes.
The duo have stayed faithful to Ireland’s original tempo markings even
though this pushes to the limits the ability of a piano to sustain the tone.
Also, Goldstone has restored the original harp-art which Ireland deliberately
simplified. In both instances these choices are triumphantly vindicated. The
work remains one of Ireland’s most impressive and powerful compositions
and in this guise links itself to the other great piano works inspired by
his time living on the Channel Islands. It makes a powerful and compelling
end to yet another brilliantly executed CD. Only the Ireland and Alfvén
have been recorded previously. Not having heard any other versions I cannot
make comparative judgments but I am sure I can say that the versions considered
here will have little to fear from any others.
A word here for the technical presentation of the disc. The playright of the
disc belongs to the duo and certainly Anthony Goldstone has recorded in this
Lincolnshire Church a lot. No producer or engineer is credited which implies
this is very much a project driven by the players themselves. The piano sound
is very good; rich and full with plenty of detail. Having recently read a
liner of a bare page and a half covering a major composer’s complete
symphonic cycle what a delight to sit down and enjoy the ever-excellent notes
provided by Goldstone. As usual these are copious - some eleven pages, in
English only and written with an ideal blend of information and entertainment.
All in all another fascinating exploration of the rich repertoire of music
for piano duet; a superb anthology presented with scholarly flair and musical
insight.
Nick Barnard
Scholarly flair meets musical insight.