Montgeroult, H. de. 2022. Études. Clare Hammond. Hybrid Super Audio Compact Disc. BIS Records BIS-2603.
American pianist
Sarah Cahill returns with the second volume of her survey of keyboard music composed by women,
The Future is Female. As with the first volume, the choice is eclectic, ranging from the late 17
thcentury to the present day, and the loose theme this time is
The Dance. She opens with the delightful
Suite No. 1 from Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre’s (1665-1729)
Pièces de clavecin. If we put to oneside any concerns about this being performed on a modern piano, Cahill’s approach is light and delicate, with rippling ornaments and the five short movements bounce along with a gentle lilt. The middle
Sarabande is quiet and contemplative, whilst the final
Gigue, whilst not overly extravagant, is pacier, within an overall introspective soundworld. Clara Schumann (1819-1896) is next, and her
Variations of a theme of Robert Schumann, Op. 20. Written as a present for her husband’s 43
rd birthday, it was one of her last compositions for the piano. The theme itself is rather mournful, almost funereal – and it was her husband’s last birthday before entering the asylum where he would end his days. However, she creates romantic passion in the variations that follow, increasing the intensity and rhythmic energy and moving the melody around in the texture. Yet she returns several times to the chorale-like plainness of the theme, and the six variation is particularly poignant and questioning. Cahill captures the atmosphere of this deeply personal composition with understated affection. We leap forward to 1957 for Germaine Tailleferre’s (1892-1983)
Partita, with its wandering melodic lines and jazzy harmonies, and a playfully balletic dance to end. We move through the latter half of the twentieth century with a mournfully nostalgic
Rhapsody from Zenobia Powell Perry (1908-2004) and two evocative movements from Madeleine Dring’s (1923-1977)
Colour Suite, full of cabaret-style swing and dance rhythms.
Elena Kats-Chernin’s (b.1957) Peggy’s Rag is delightfully nostalgic, and
Betsy Jolas’ (b.1926) Tango Si deconstructs elements of the dance, with stop-start hints of tango rhythms. The
St Petersburg Waltz by
Meredith Monk (b.1942) swirls around repeated chords with Eastern European inflections and distant cries from the top of the keyboard. Mexican composer
Gabriela Ortiz’s (b.1964) Preludio y Estudio No. 3 has a mysterious, free prelude with high outbursts contrasting with a drone-like bass, and the virtuosic Estudio is full of insistent driving rhythms, splashing chords and metallic use of the very top of the instrument. The disc ends with a dramatically expressive piece,
‘She Dances Naked Under Palm Trees’, by
Theresa Wong (b.1976), with haunting use of the pedal to create ringing notes, thundering textures, glissandi and a deeply unsettling 13-beat metre. As with the first disc, with such a fascinating and well-chosen selection of diverse works, it is easy to forget the pianist here, and once again Cahill demonstrates an impressive command of such a wide variety of styles, so as well as being a great testament to the women composers here, high praise is deserved for these performances too.
Various. 2022. The Future is Female, Vol. 2, The Dance. Sarah Cahill. Compact Disc. First Hand Records FHR132.
Ruth Gipps (1921-1999)
was an English composer, oboist, pianist and conductor, studying the oboe at the Royal College of Music with Léon Goossens, and composition with Gordon Jacob and Vaughan Williams. Her music eschewed serialism or atonalism and as such, perhaps fell out of fashion somewhat – and of course she sadly suffered at the hands of a misogynistic and male-dominated world of composition in the early to mid-twentieth century. Thankfully, her music is experiencing something of a revival, and Chandos’ second volume of her orchestral music further demonstrates the inventiveness of her orchestration and her understanding of orchestral colour. Her youthful Oboe Concerto, Op. 20, expertly performed here by Juliana Koch, along with the BBC Philharmonic conducted by Rumon Gamba, is full of lively writing for the oboe, along with lyricism in the slow movement, folksy dancing melodies in its finale. But its strengths also lie in the delicacy of the scoring, with just muted strings in the central Andante, and mysterious string textures in the opening movement. There are two short orchestral works here too, firstly an Overture to a never completed opera, Chanticleer, Op. 28, with atmospheric wind writing and surging strings, as well as rasping brass evoking the cockerel of the title. There is also a dark elegy on war, Death on the Pale Horse, Op. 25 (written in 1943), drawing inspiration from Blake’s painting of the same name. Here, gently pulsing timpani build to the climactic moments, and the opening horn solo, repeated at various points, adds to the sense of doom. The rest of the disc is given over to Gipps’ Symphony No. 3, Op. 57. Written in 1965, the style was surely running against the fashions of the time, which might explain its relative obscurity, but the wealth of expression and orchestral colour on offer here is immediately attractive. The shifting tonalities of the opening movement, with rich string writing, builds to exhilharating, surging climaxes, and the Theme and Variations second movement is warm and lush, with highly imaginative use of percussion. Again, unusual orchestral colour is on display in the Scherzo, with an ostinato (repeated figure) for harp and glockenspiel, against skittish string writing. The finale is jaunty, with some striking moments for the brass – she certainly knows how to make the most of all parts of orchestral textures, and Gamba and the BBC Philharmonic exploit this to the full. I missed Volume 1, and will certainly now be seeking it out.
Gipps, R. 2022. Ruth Gipps Orchestral Works, Vol. 2. Juliana Koch, BBC Philharmonic, Rumon Gamba. Compact Disc. Chandos CHAN 20161.
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