PIANO SOLO, Contemporary
PETER BRODERICK, PIANO WORKS VOL.1
Erased Tapes/Music Sales, £19.99
STEFFEN WICK, PIANO PARTICLES – SHEETS I
Bosworth/Music Sales, £19.95
NICO MUHLY, THREE ÉTUDES FOR PIANO
St Rose/Chester/Music Sales, £7.99
PAUL MEALOR, THE INFINITE MEADOWS OF HEAVEN
Novello/Music Sales, £5.95
J.L. ADAMS, AMONG RED MOUNTAINS; TUKULIIT; NUNATAKS
Chester/Music Sales, £6.99 each
PETER DICKINSON, LULLABY FROM ‘THE UNICORNS’
Novello/Music Sales, £4.99
LENNOX BERKELEY, SUITE FOR THE HARPSICHORD
Chester/Music Sales, £8.99
GERARD SCHURMANN, MEMENTO
Novello/Music Sales, £3.99
SIMON HOLT, DARLING EVE IN THE EVIL GARDEN
Chester/Music Sales, £10.99
MAGNUS LINDBERG, PIANO ALBUM
Boosey & Hawkes/Schott, £17.99
Publishing contemporary music is a risky business, and this month's batch is to be saluted. Opinions will vary on the contents, especially the first few titles, all minimalist – still a cop-out option in many peoples’ eyes, both in terms of composer responsibility and exam recital time-filling, though attractive to those students fazed by the intellectual complexities of Satie.
Composition teachers will look for contrast, if not actual modulation, in vain; engravers, editors and professional players will despair in those places where the capabilities of traditional notation seem not to have been learned. (Diffident composer prefaces are no excuse.) Pedal-marks should go beneath, not above, the stave; notes on eight leger-lines are pointlessly hard to read compared to those on four with 8va signs; 3/2 is a more sensible time-signature than 4+4+4 over 8; and long-winded footnotes advising on balance are no improvement on carefully chosen dynamics.
And yet, minimalism is too pervasive simply to ignore. Best of the bunch, Alaska-based John Luther Adams presents static chords moving in four simultaneous tempos: good 3-against-5-or-7 counting practice even if the process is imperceptible in performance. Nunataks’ chords in fifths and general lack of incident reminded me of Koechlin.
More reactionary, in this context (meaning: with tunes) are Peter Dickinson and a Boulanger-pupil-era piece by Lennox Berkeley: ‘for harpsichord’ yet with octaves, big chords, crescendos and accents. The Gerard Schurmann, Simon Holt and – by a long way – Magnus Lindberg are tougher and more meaty: Holt's title contains two of six possible anagrams, a handy lesson-break game even if neither pupil nor teacher can get anywhere near the actual notes. Dissonant chords, rhythmic complexities and falling-down-the-stairs cascades abound: Lindberg's final piece (Promenade) is most impressive and not quite as hard as it looks.
FOUR HANDS, Easy to Advanced
EDWARD GREGSON, FOUR PICTURES
Novello/Music Sales, £4.99
VARIOUS, ARR MARTIN REICH, PRIMO & SECONDO
Breitkopf & Härtel EB 8895, £15.25
PIAZZOLLA & CARBAJOS, ARR MULVAD, TO TIL TANGO
Hansen/Music Sales, £13.95
MELODY BOBER, A TREASURED FRIENDSHIP
Alfred, £5.50
VARIOUS, ED KOWALCHYK & LANCASTER, ESSENTIAL KEYBOARD DUETS, VOL.8, CLASSICAL TO MODERN
Alfred, £16.50
JAIRO GERONYMO, 4 PRIMA VISTAS
Breitkopf & Härtel EB 8853, £26.95
FAURÉ, DOLLY OP.56
Henle Urtext HN 1278, £12.50
DVOŘÁK, LEGENDS OP.59
Henle Urtext HN 1080, £14.50
GRIEG, PEER GYNT SUITES
Henle Urtext HN 1243, £11.95
GRIEG, PEER GYNT SUITES, ARR PIANO SOLO
Henle Urtext HN 1239, £9.50
As brass and wind band players already know, Edward Gregson's music always ‘fits the bill’. Allowing for spicy 20th-centuryisms, his Four Pictures does not exceed Grade 3; these concise pieces deserve careful rehearsal. Martin Reich commendably arranges 20 mostly familiar tunes: Grades 1-4, score format. Maple Leaf Rag gives Secondo the tune – hooray! Two to Tango (the only Norwegian I can safely translate) taps into the apparently insatiable demand for Piazzolla: nine easy arrangements here, and an arranger's preface – though in Norwegian only, and there's no contents page.
A Treasured Friendship sounds satisfyingly rich though it could mostly have been written 150 years ago. This is for two Grade 4-5 players, unlike Alfred's Vol.8, which features no fewer than 45 pieces carefully allocated in situ to teacher and student. The best-known names here are Diabelli, Reinecke and Stravinsky. 4 Prima Vistas ingeniously encourage four shy sight-readers at once: just one hand from each is required (though two pianos, not one), and you can cut a pack of cards to decide who plays what.
Finally, some grown-up standard repertoire from the ever-reliable Henle Urtext. Fauré's ‘Ketty’ (actually a dog) is still written as ‘Kitty’ – I'm not convinced by the editorial explanation. As pieces, Dvorák's ten Legends don't rival the Slavonic Dances but are far better than From the Bohemian Forest which I reviewed in April 2016.The Peer Gynt arrangements, whether for two or four hands, are Grieg's own, something the title-pages could have emphasised. The second suite will pleasantly surprise those who only know the first. Open-minded pianists (and others) should then listen to the stand-alone ‘Prelude’, not included here but a magnificent piece which gives the whole orchestra a decent work-out, something the suites frustratingly do not.
