From the archives
Andrew Mcgregor gets to know the composer and pianist Percy Grainger thanks to a vivid new collection
Who was Percy Grainger? Sixty years after his death, this comprehensive Grainger Edition (Chandos CHAN 20196; 21 CDS) paints a vivid portrait of a real original: the Australian concert pianist who moved to London in 1901, introducing audiences to Debussy and Ravel, collecting English folksongs and beginning to perform and publish his own pieces, some of which became hugely popular worldwide hits. The first two CDS in the box remind us of Grainger’s unerring instinct for earworms, and his delightful and innovative orchestrations.
There are brilliant performances from the BBC Philharmonic and Richard Hickox, whose affectionate enthusiasm for Grainger’s music is one of the mainstays of the set. So too is the scholarship and elegantly refined playing of pianist Penelope Thwaites, our guide from the simplest solo pieces to the experimental ambitions of Random Round with six pianists. Thwaites accompanies many of the songs, with Della Jones, Martyn Hill and Stephen Varcoe among others. There’s the revelation that Grainger had formulated many of his compositions before he was 20, constantly reworking them; so you get multiple versions of some of the hits, from solo piano to innovative orchestrations for Stokowski; never repetitive, instead you’ll be captivated by Grainger’s restless invention.
To grasp the scope of Grainger’s talent, try his imaginary ballet The Warriors – complex, idiosyncratic and exhilarating. There’s the tantalising glimpse of Grainger’s ‘Free Music’, fresh thinking inspired by what he called the ‘unforeknowableness of nature’.
And perhaps the ultimate Grainger arrangement: his Ramble on Love, a gorgeous elaboration of the love duet from Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, and a heart-felt tribute to Grainger’s beloved mother, Rose.
So many first recordings, plus exemplary notes from the Grainger Society’s Barry Peter Ould. Who was Percy Grainger? On this comprehensive evidence, an often misunderstood and underappreciated musical genius… and so much fun.
Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings in C; Elgar: Serenade for Strings in E minor; Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik
Zurich Chamber Orchestra/
Daniel Hope (violin)
DG 483 9845 61:03 mins
Such is the intensity of Tchaikovsky’s musical inspiration that it feels in some performances as though the title ‘serenade’ has gone completely by the board. Yet if one over-lightens the textures and trims down the personnel in order to enhance the music’s moments of tender intimacy, the outer movements can seem decidedly underwhelming. Daniel Hope gets it just about right with tempos that keep the music flowing naturally without ever seeming rushed, while creating the impression of a string octet in overdrive rather than a slimmeddown symphonic ensemble. Some may miss the high-adrenalin count and espressivo clout of, say, Herbert von Karajan’s early 1980s digital Berlin remake (also DG), yet Hope is more successful at capturing the music’s Italianate sparkle and charm, beguiling the senses with a gentle bonhomie and warmth without an attendant sense of ‘maestro at work’.
Even more persuasive is a performance of Elgar’s Serenade that captures its quintessential Englishness, outdoor freshness and spontaneity with a captivating inner glow. Hope keeps everything perfectly in scale, demonstrating an unusual sensitivity at lower dynamic levels, and ensures the music retains its masterpiecein-miniature profile rather than creating a sense of the Introduction and Allegro in embryo.
To finish, a reading of Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik that is all the more effective for embracing cantabile eloquence and resisting the pressures of historically informed practice. By taking the opening Allegro’s second-halfrepeat and not rushing the finale off its feet, Hope also succeeds in imbuing this underrated score with a genial gravitas that it sadly often lacks. Julian Haylock PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
★★★★
★★★★
Paris
Chausson: Poème, Op. 25; Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1; Rautavaara: Deux sérénades
Hilary Hahn (violin); Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France/mikko Franck
DG 483 9847 51:31 mins
Hilary Hahn praises the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France as one where ‘emotion is embraced rather than exaggerated’, and the disc is an embodiment of this crucial virtue. I also savour her reference to the ‘measured brutality of Prokofiev’s writing’, this as well amply present in her reading of his First Violin Concerto. She admits it’s technically difficult, though you wouldn’t know it as her poise and silvery tone survive unscathed. In the second movement it’s interesting that where Maxim Vengerov in his 1995 recording follows Prokofiev’s instruction to play the passage on the bridge con tutta forza, with the result that pitch is at times endangered, Hahn does not go so far, perhaps regarding this as exaggeration. Both interpretations are surely feasible.
The Chausson Poème is a joy from start to finish. For the most part rubato is strictly limited, with the one exception of the 25-bar solo passage at fig.4 which has, at least from the 17-year-old Menuhin’s 1933 recording, and probably before that, been treated as a fantasia with a marked accelerando towards the end. Hahn is not afraid to play a true pianissimo when called for, with no loss of tone, nor is she fazed by Chausson’s stratospherics – the part spends much of its time way up above the treble stave.
The two Serenades by
Poème Rautavaara, dedicated to her, have moved away from the gritty dissonance of his writing in the late 1950s, when he was still under the influence of his lessons in America with Copland and Sessions that had introduced him to serial ideas. These two gently reflective pieces, the orchestration of the second completed by the composer’s pupil Kalevi Aho, often recall the music of Sibelius.
PERFORMANCE
RECORDING
★★★★★
★★★★★
The Chausson is a joy from start to finish