This fascinating recital opens
with one of many arrangements Percy Grainger made of Country Gardens
between 1908 and 1947. This is for two recorders (descant and treble). It was
completed at Balfour Gardiner’s home at Fontwell Hill. The liner notes remind
the listener that Ronald Stevenson and Grainger were close friends.
The text of A Year Owre Young (1987) was written by the Scottish novelist and poet James Hogg. Stevenson has set it for mezzo soprano and violin. The subject matter is that “the bonnie lad with the yellow hair” no longer comes to woo her. It is an evocative song that is timeless and modern at the same time. “Owre” is Scots language for “Over.”
Equally enchanting is his setting
of William Blake’s poem To Autumn for soprano and recorder (1965). It is
effectively a “monody” for voice, with the recorder providing a prelude and
interlude. In the “middle eight” the two performers come together. The text
explores the colours and sentiments of an autumn day.
Celtic Triptych (2010) for solo recorder may be Ronald Stevenson’s last composition. It was dedicated to the present soloist John Turner. The liner notes explain that he had adapted material from his Scots Suite for solo violin, dating from 1974. There are three absorbing movements. The work opens with a Slow Air which is “the song of a lonely soul.” The second, a Strathspey incorporates a Scottish folk tune, The Marquis of Huntley. The finale is a twelve-tone rondo. Stevenson gave it an unofficial subtitle of The Drunk Man Looks at the Fiddle. Fans will get the allusion to his friend Hugh MacDiarmid’s legendary stream of consciousness poem, A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle.
For sheer delight, the listener cannot beat Stevenson’s A Wee Holiday Suite. It was composed in 1978, whilst he was visiting Percy Grainger’s home in White Plains, New York State. His companion on the trip was the co-founder of the Percy Grainger Society, Barry Peter Ould, nicknamed Bipo, with a clear allusion to the Marx Brothers. Three of the movements portray Bipo’s escapades including his Dance, his Sleepo and his Ear-Pop. Other folk are portrayed too: A Balow for Balough nods to Teresa Balough who published the first catalogue of Grainger’s music and Ulla’s and Ella’s Hike refers to Grainger’s niece, and his wife respectively, and their daily walks around the veranda of the house. The Suite is just a pleasure to hear: it should be in the repertoire of all competent recorderists.
Dundee-born Wilma Patterson has
contributed five Little Cynical Songs to this CD. Originally written as
incidental music to a play by author Joan Ure (pen name of Elizabeth Clark)
they were assembled here as a miniature song-cycle. These fetchingly tonal melodies
are scored for soprano and recorder.
Doyen of Scottish composers and musicologists, John Purser has contributed a lovely little number for solo recorder: Skye Blue (2019). Purser explains that this is a set of four variations on a “simple fourteen bar theme.” These “share the characteristics with those of the piobaireachd – the classical music of the Highland bagpipe.” The last time I visited the Isle of Skye it was a perfect, cloudless, summer’s day. Skye Blue is certainly evocative of this wonderful part of Scotland.
Fellow Scottish composer David Johnson wrote a series of Twelve Preludes and Fugues for piano (c.1990s). We hear three of them on this CD. The Prelude No.1 uses a four-note figure echoing pronunciation of the Gaelic word bheatha, “meaning life, welcome, livelihood [and] food.” It opens quietly, soon building up to a climax. The associated fugue is a “homage to Bach” with bluesy-blue notes. The second, No.6 in G major opens with a lugubrious prelude. This is a transcription of a piece Johnson penned in 1974, a setting of Hugh MacDiarmid’s O Jesu Parvule (O little Jesus). This poem is a Scottish dialect meditation on the Nativity of Christ. The fugue uses a theme combining B-A-C-H, a fragment of an Hebridean lullaby as well as the German chorale Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (How lovely shines the morning star). The liner notes print the inaccurate reverse translation “Wie school leuchtet dear Morgenstern.” The final Prelude and Fugue No.8 in F parodies an old psalm tune, complete with piquant “wrong” harmonies and the fugue is fairly “in the groove.” These are delightful, non-academic, sometimes humorous, and always technically consistent preludes and fugues. Twenty-five years ago, Ian Hobson recorded the entire set on Zephyr Z113-97 (reviewed here). I need to discover this CD.
Ronald Stevenson’s pleasing Three Improvisations on Themes by Emanuel Moor (1986), for solo recorder were dedicated to “my South African friend Katherine Moor…” Moor was a puppeteer whom he met whilst he was teaching at Cape Town University. The first two pieces, minuets, are noticeably short, lasting only seconds. The finale is a little set of variations, masquerading as a gavotte and a gigue. Interestingly, no mention of Katherine Moor nor the present work is made in Ronald Stevenson: The Man and his Music, edited by Colin Scott-Sutherland (Toccata Press, 2005).
William Soutar was a Scottish poet who wrote poetry in both braid Scots and English. He led a tragic life, being bedridden for many years until his death in 1943. The first of the Two songs to poems by William Soutar (1965) is Hallow’en Song, which is a trippy little number suggesting to the protagonist “Do not go out tonight” on this most haunted time of the year. This is followed by The Quiet Comes In which is a meditation of life and death and the weather – “When the rage is by/The Bluid grows still” until “Whan the sang is owre/The quiet comes in.”
Edward McGuire’s Prelude 29 is his tongue in cheek title for this attractive little study. It is a supplement to his two sets of twenty-four preludes written for a wide variety of instruments. The piece was specially commissioned for this present CD. It was inspired by David Betteridge’s poem Not to be Hushed (In memory of Ronald Stevenson). The final lines suggest that Stevenson will “not to be hushed ever/given a world attuned to hear.” An appropriate (hopefully) epitaph.
The last two works on this CD are by Percy Grainger. Over the Hills and Far Away (Children’s March) for piano was arranged for two descant recorders and piano by Ronald Stevenson in 1978. This is followed by another rendition of Country Gardens (1947) for two descant recorders, this time all Grainger’s own effort. It brings the recital to a charming conclusion.
This is a splendid CD. The repertoire is novel and always interesting.
The performances by all concerned are superb. Special mention must be made of
John Turner’s splendid playing on the recorder and Lesley-Jane Rogers
beautiful, clear soprano voice. The recording complements the performance. The
booklet includes detailed information about the composers, the music, and the
performers. All the texts of the songs are given, including translations of the
Lallans Scots poems.
This CD is an outstanding collection of music by Ronald Stevenson and
some of his friends. It is a fitting tribute to one of the greatest, but sadly
underrated, British composers of the last hundred years.
Percy Grainger (1882-1961)
Country Gardens for two recorders (descant and treble) (1947)
Ronald Stevenson (1928-2015)
A Year Owre Young, for soprano and violin (1987)
To Autumn for soprano and recorder (1965)
Celtic Triptych, for solo recorder: Slow Air; Strathspey (Scottish Dance); Twelve-note jig (Giga dodecafonica) (2010)
A Wee Holiday Suite, for recorder and piano: Bipo’s Dance; A Balow for a Balough; Bipo’s sleepo; Ulla’s and Ella’s Veranda-Hike; Bipo’s ear-pop (1978)
Wilma Paterson (b.1944)
Little Cynical Songs, for soprano and tenor recorder: Nostalgia for Sweet Friendship; The Little Goddess Pan; Torch Song for Dead Love; Weave me; Happy Ending Song (?)
John Purser (b.1942)
Skye Blue, for solo recorder (2019)
David Johnson (1942-2009)
Preludes and Fugues for piano (from Twelve Preludes and Fugues for piano): No.1 in B Flat; No.6 in G; and No.8 in F (1992-95)
Ronald Stevenson
Three Improvisations on Themes by Emanuel Moor, for solo recorder: Allegro Moderato; Tempo di Minuetto grazioso; Andante - Tempo di Valse - Alla gavotta - Alla giga (1986)
Two songs to poems by William Soutar, for soprano and piano: Hallowe’en Sang; The Quiet Comes In (1965)
Edward McGuire (b.1948)
Prelude 29, for solo treble recorder (2022)
Percy Grainger arr. Ronald Stevenson
Over the Hills and Far Away (Children’s March), for two descant recorders and piano (1978)
Percy Grainger
Country Gardens, for two recorders (two descant recorders) (1947)
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