Night Fancy

Works by Bacheler, Britten, Fricker, John Mcleod, Rosseter

Michael Butten (guitar)

First Hand Records FHR156 66:39 mins

A former winner of the Julian Bream Prize, Michael Butten follows his distinguished forebear in twin devotion to both the Elizabethan lutenists and the postwar British composers for whom they provided inspiration when called upon – often by Bream himself – to write for the then largely unfamiliar classical guitar.

Two substantial such works feature alongside Renaissance transcriptions and more on this, Butten’s second FHR release. A clue to his purpose lies in the title Night Fancy – a reference to Britten’s Nocturnal (1963), the suite based on Dowland’s Come Heavy Sleep (Night Fancy was Nocturnal’s working title).

Butten gives it an almost savage reading, full of drama and technical panache, albeit with some rhythmic subtlety lost in the urgency which propels, for example, movements two and three respectively, where ‘Very Agitated’ verges on brittle at points, and ‘Restless’ overtakes rocking clarity in the twos-againstthrees. Similarly fierce is Peter Racine Fricker’s Paseo (1970), which nonetheless evokes its nocturnal stroll with an ominous glitter befitting the composer’s knotty, introverted harmonies.

Simpler and perhaps clearer are pieces by court composers Daniel Bacheler and Philip Rosseter. The former’s Monsieurs Almaine opens the album with a grand theme and variations, and the latter’s four-part informal suite offers an engaging preparation for the weightier Britten – while his dolefully chromatic Fantasia effectively prefigures its dark character. Most notably, the Fantasy on Themes from Britten’s ‘Gloriana’ cleverly brings nocturnal, fancy and courtly themes together in a guitar adaptation by John Mcleod which deserves to be far better known. Steph Power PERFORMANCE

RECORDING