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Fanfare

Pianist Roderick Chadwick appears on another disc I reviewed in this issue: Gregory Fritze’sSpanish Meditations & Dances, again on Divine Art. There, he was in a duo; here, he flies solo in one of the most perfectly programmed twofers I have ever heard.

Each disc begins with Messiaen, and Messiaen punctuates the remaining composers. The first piece is “Le traquet stapazin,” heard here in a performance of the utmost understanding. Those who cherish (rightly) Aimard, Yvnne Loriod, or Anatol Ugorski will find Chadwick sits well in their company. He is as sensitive as Aimard, and yet can be as gestural as Loriod. There is such beauty here, such perfect conjuring of magical textures. Messiaen saw birds spiritually, and how that shines through Chadwisk’s performance.

We have met Australian-born (1965), UK-resident composer Sadie Harrison before a number of times, via her NMC disc (which included An Unexpected Light, Fanfare 31:2), and the Toccata Classics disc including Gallery (Fanfare 39:3). Her Lunae also works with evocation of both the world around us and of the world of the Romantic piano nocturne, plus music especially close to her heart, the nocturnal evocations of the Impressionists, plus Bartók. The first movement, “Around and a Round …” is what she calls a “midnight merry-go-round.” I do feel a sense of the Fauré Nocturnes behind this, in addition to the composers she herself mentions. It is brilliantly written for the piano (Harrison is a fine pianist herself). Chadwick paints the music in a multitude of shades of semi-light. Based around Dowland’s Lachrymae Pavane, the arpeggiations of “Lachrymae” indeed invoke the world of the lute. It is written as an “In Memoriam” to “Pamela Parr, epigraphist and adventurer” and the score quotes Lithuanian poet Valdas Daskevcius: “Love is the silence in which I remember you and repeat you.” Chadwick delivers this with the utmost delicacy; rarely have I heard tremolandos so sensitively and evenly delivered. The third nocturne, “Of Stars and Nightingales,” takes its inspiration from Debussy’s Prélude, “La terrasse des audiences du clair du lune” and, linking to the gist of the disc, Messiaen’s “Régard de l’étoile.” There is almost the sense of a deconstructed Impressionist world here, punctuated by a nightingale’s song. The fourth nocturne, “Sufficit lumen in tenebris” (One light suffices in the dark) begins with a chorale; the piece is based on a Medieval chant from the Worcester school, dating from around 1300 AD. As the composer points out, the word “nocturne” comes from Medieval Latin and refers to the liturgical office associated with night prayers. The stillness of some of this music is breathtaking, and all credit is due to Chadwick for taking all the time in the world to create this atmosphere.

Two more Messiaen pieces from the Catalogue, both from Book 3, follow: first is a vast, chthonic “La chouette hulotte.” The call of the tawny owl was one of the first Messiaen collected for the Catalogue, notated at two in the morning (linking nicely with the nocturnes just heard). Again, Chadwick’s dynamic range is huge, and his pianissimos are always perfectly weighted. Notated at midnight, “L’allouette lulu” contrasts registers beautifully, the slowly crawling bass against the call of the woodlark up above. It is pure Messiaen, and Chadwick delineates the plateaus perfectly. His variety of touch is the key, along with some clearly well-considered pedaling.

I confess to having been less than enthusiastic about some of Julian Anderson’s work in the past, so it is good to report that his set of six pieces, Sensation, that closes the first disc is a fine work. It works with our experience (sensation) of time and also contains an “In Memoriam,” this time to Imogen Holst. The piece is called “She hears.” The concentration of the music and its unhurried nature both pay tribute to her (she was known for the intensity of her listening process). The next piece is for Pierre-Laurent Aimard and is called “Toucher.” It is effectively an etude in variety of touch. especially jeu perlé. The dialogue between two lines is partly witty, partly very clever. There’s no missing the virtuosity of “Sight Lines”; its disjunct hyperactivity is exciting and in complete contrast to the nocturne that is “Nuits,” which, like Messiaen’s piece, invokes the natural world. Pierre Audi is the recipient of “Alba”: “Daen.” The bell chords here do seem very close to Messiaen in their colorful resonance before a short coda seeks to summarize the set in a mere two-and-a-half minutes, and somehow succeeds.

A half-hour Messiaen piece opens the second disc: “La rousserolle effarvate” from the fourth book of the Catalogue. This piece contains remarkable moments: the rising of a red sun in sound and the song of the nightingale, all contained within a representation of a 27-hour cycle. One of the most remarkable pieces in Catalogue, this is given a positively virtuoso performance by Chadwick; his command and understanding of Messiaen’s use of gesture is complete. This is a commanding performance.

It’s interesting to hear the music of Betsy Jolas (b. 1926), her Chanson d’approche. A student of Messiaen’s, and so nicely binding herself into the set, Jolas spatially notated her piece, which gives the pianist a certain fluidity that is certainly audible in this beautiful performance. It is a rarefied interlude between Messiaen pieces. “L’alouette calandrelle” follows, a bird from Provence; such a short piece, with so many colors. Chadwick’s staccato chords are almost playful in “La bouscarle” (Cetti’s warbler).

So, how to finish? Debussy and Grieg is the answer: a lovely performance of the fourth Prélude from Book I of Debussy’s Préludes, textures nicely terraced, and Grieg’s famous “Notturno” from the Lyric Pieces, bringing us back to Harrison’s four offerings but in a very different language (yet one that still explores birdsong in its treble trills).

This is a superb release, thought-provoking and utterly involving. Roderick Chadwick is a name to remember. I learned a lot from the extensive booklet notes, too.