This is the second in Somm’s Billy Mayerl series with pianist Philip
Martin. My colleague Jonathan Woolf reviewed Volume 1 on
SOMMCD 0124 with mixed feelings. He thought that “…
Martin is more interested in pointing up Mayerl’s harmonic writing, and that
he is intent on pursuing the more veiled impressionism that does indeed lie
at the heart of some of Mayerl’s music - that and Gershwin and
Rachmaninovian impulses ... he is resistant to overstate Mayerl as the
galvanic syncopator.”
I must say listening to this newly released second volume that I agree
very much with Jonathan’s assessment although Martin’s ‘more relaxed,
careful’ Mayerl sometimes is very appealing. For instance his take on White
Heather is quite haunting. Interesting that its date of composition fell in
1932. That locates it between the two complex-harmony-filled yet so
satisfying-to-the ear suites, Three Japanese Pictures and Three Syncopated
Rambles of 1930 and 1933 respectively. Of these the lovely, reflective (in
Martin’s fingers)
Almond Blossom is especially appealing and so too
is the sentimentality of
Printer’s Devil in the other suite. It is
interesting to note the wide differences in timings between the readings of
Martin and Eric Parkin on Chandos
CHAN8560
and
CHAN10324(3
)X. Parkin’s
Almond Blossom is only 2.05 and his
Nimble-fingered Gentleman (in character very much like
White
Heather) just 3.18 shaving off 1.05 and 2.03 respectively.
The whole collection embraces Mayerl compositions from the 1925
Pianolettes to the
Circus Sketches of 1948. The
Pianolettes, designed to show off a pianist’s virtuosity, were
overtly appealing with syncopations and jazz harmonies to the fore; perhaps
a case of Scot Joplin meeting Gershwin ... especially in 'All of a
Twist'. Notes-writer Robert Matthew-Walker thinks Gershwin and
Poulenc are probable influences in ‘The Ringmaster’, the first of the
Circus Sketches which are all impressive: intriguing and
imaginatively complex compositions.
One early composition I must mention is
Jasmine (1927). Again
Martin lingers but I do not mind because this flower is so bewitching. The
Gershwin influence
is very marked. Indeed
as Matthew-Walker suggests there seems to be an allusion to a phrase from
Lady be Good -
The Half of it Dearie blues.
Equally engaging are the
Insect Oddities, the only Mayerl
composition delivered during World War II. The
Ladybird is all
gentle fluttering elegance while the
Praying Mantis might have been
a bit of a lad swinging along in his flamboyant debonair manner entrapping
the ladies?
Hardly wayward Mayerl, nevertheless often very satisfying.
Ian Lace
