This is a special disc, clearly born of long study of these home-spun but
effective mood-sketches. There is a special artistry in writing and interpreting
these staples of the domestic piano stool. Gerard van der Laan in sympathetic
domestic style evidently has a special love for these unassuming pieces of
mood music.
The first set are the Fireside Tales. In From a German Forest
there is some impressively light-fingered filigree caprice work (1:48).
The Haunted House has some Baxian warbling in the lefthand part.
There is more vigour in the Woodland Sketches, telling of New
World forests, trailing creepers, enchanted pools, abandoned farm houses
overrun by nature, bright moments in the sun and darker mysteries threatening
as in From an Indian Lodge. To A Wild Rose (the famous track)
is haunted by the tune - Cherry Ripe. The mood is returned to in A
Water Lily. In the more fanciful Will O' the Wisp the voices of
Granados, Chopin and Mendelssohn's fairy music are heard in music which has
more movement than the other pieces. In Autumn is bright and breezy
as also is From Uncle Remus. The tale - Told At Sunset which
concludes the set seems a pretty resolute tale with an unusual quota of conflict
although tame by comparison with Medtner or Rachmaninov.
The final New England Idylls include much that is a return to Macdowell's
accustomed mood of dreamy rhapsody. An Old Garden and Sweet Lavender
are good examples. Midsummer seems to envision a scene in the
shadow of the trees. Midwinter is a strong piece with lovely upwards
runs seeming to point to gusts of wind and eddies of snow. In The Deep
Woods is another strong track with a strong vein of heroic nobility and
a few hints of raindrops falling from the forest ceiling. To An Old White
Pine is rather Baxian and this should not surprise us. I recall that
Colin Scott Sutherland's fine 1970s book on Bax drew parallels with Macdowell
and even then stirred my interest in the American composer's four named piano
sonatas. The sequence closes with the Glazunovian eagerness of The Joy
Of Autumn.
Macdowell's are innocent not lascivious pleasures and van der Laan faithfully
conveys this with better than serviceable technique where speed is concerned
but without intrusive virtuoso brilliance. You get the impression that you
are sitting in a drawing room listening to a fine domestic player saying
'listen isn't this good …. Just listen to this!' and he is talking about
the music not about how wonderful he is.
The disc comes with a 16 page booklet in Dutch only. The whole production
is presented professionally with attention to fine details. The booklet contains
poems; one for each of the 26 pieces and these are the handiwork of Judith
Jonkman. It is my loss that I am not familiar with Dutch so I cannot comment.
Just to reassure you; the poems are not read over the music. they are simply
reproduced in the booklet.
It would be easy to overdose on these idylls, sketches and tales. Despite
the similarity in titles with works by Medtner these are very different:
more homespun but with immediately accessible charm. Gerard van der Laan
seems closely in tune with this element and with the rarer darker moods as
in From an Indian Lodge.
I would now like to hear Mr Van Der Laan in the four Macdowell piano sonatas.
Meantime followers of Macdowell would do well to add these sincerely conceived
and reflective performances to their collections.
The only real down-side is the recording. I am not sure whether it is the
acoustic or the piano but the sound seems quite constrained; a little boxy.
This rather robs the performances of a little of their telling effect.
Reviewer
Rob Barnett
Gerard
van der Laan (piano)
