The Peter Jacobs Anthology Volume 2

This absorbing recital opens with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Petite Suite de Concert. It dates from 1911 or before, not 1916 as shown on the track listing. There are four pleasing movements beginning with the Schumanesque Le Caprice de Nannette with its multiple tunes. This is followed by Demande et réponse (“Question and Answer”) which presents a big, overblown love theme. This was a once popular salon piece, heard at pier ends and in the drawing room. It is not known who or what the inspiration for Un Sonnet d’amour, was, but is has been mooted that it might be a serenade to Columbine in the Commedia dell'Arte. The Suite concludes with La Tarantelle Frétillante, A Wriggling Tarantella, which provides an increasingly boisterous conclusion.

My personal favourite on this disc is High Marley Rest (1933) by composer/vicar Greville Cooke. It is a wonderful evocation of his piano teacher Tobias Matthay’s house High Marley in Surrey. There are splendid views on a clear day towards the English Channel. Peter Jacobs is correct in his contention that this is “An unknown treasure of the piano repertoire.”

The reason that Jacobs has included the rarely heard Mazurka and Waltz for a Little Girl (1922-23) by Delius is because Eric Fenby, the composer’s amanuensis, was his harmony teacher at the Royal Academy of Music. They are the first two numbers in the Five Piano Pieces. Despite being no masterwork, they are still reminiscent of Delius’s style. They were probably dedicated to Yvonne O’Neill, daughter of composer Norman O’Neill. The track listing gives the wrong date of 1933 for these pieces.

Somewhere in my collection of sheet music is a copy of English composer, pianist, and musicologist, Christopher Headington’s technically demanding Toccata for piano (1963). This balances tonal passages with twelve note structures, making it at once both modern and rooted in tradition. I disagree with the critic John Lade, that it “seems overlong for its rather slender musical ideas which no manner of brilliant treatment can make really convincing.” I find it fascinating from the first note to the last.

The most significant work on this disc is Edmund Rubbra’s Eight Preludes, op.131 for piano, dating from 1966. They were first given at the 1967 Cheltenham Festival. Peter Jacobs writes in the liner notes that Rubbra is an almost forgotten genius of British music. To be sure, there is no society to keep his achievement in the public eye. Yet a fair amount of his catalogue has been recorded, including all the symphonies (Chandos) and the ‘complete’ piano music (Dutton Epoch). All eight preludes have a “grave disposition” and lack humour or light. They should be played as a cycle; but the listener is liable to be depressed by the end of twenty minutes.

It is always a pleasure to hear Cyril Scott’s best-known piano piece, the sumptuously impressionistic Lotus Land (1905). Many years ago, it was described as “penny-postcard orientalism,” yet despite this canard, both Scott and Jacob manage to create just the right dreamland atmosphere. This languid evocation never fails to charm.

Cecil Armstrong Gibbs’s Lakeland Pictures were written in 1940 when he and his family moved from Danbury in Essex to Westmoreland. They were subsequently lost but were rediscovered in 1996. Jacobs has chosen two of them for this recital. First up, is the tumultuous After Rain - Rydal Beck. This non-stop number suggests that the brook is in spate. A melancholy mood hangs over the Quiet Winter (Tarn Hows) with its thoughtful progress. Alan Cuckston issued a recording of the complete cycle in 2001 (reviewed, here). I have yet to hear the full set.

A surprise discovery was Croydon born composer Cecil Baumer’s Idyll (1935). He was a pupil of Mathilde Verne, who was in her turn a student of Clara Schumann. Known for his songs and piano music, the present work has echoes of Rachmaninov. Definitely someone to explore, save there seems precious little readily available. Puppet Piece and Alice in Wonderland with several other character studies are listed on WorldCat.

I think that the listener will need a listening strategy to approach Anglo-Indian composer John Mayer’s Calcutta-Nagar (1993). There are eighteen tiny ‘movements’ here, some lasting at less than half a minute. Each one has a title. Examples being The Rickshaw-Wallahs – in in Dharmatala Street, The River Hooghley, China Town, and The New Market. It is possible to sit down with Google Maps and explore each location. However, I tended to see them as a set of variations without a theme. Certainly, they are “wistful, humorous and cheeky” and from time to time redolent. Just occasionally there is a Spanish feel, especially in The Ghora Girls-in the horse carriages in Chowringhee Road. It is quite a delightful suite of music. And yes, the title was given to the work before the city’s official name changed to Kolkata in 2001.

It seemed unnecessary to comment on the playing of the above pieces individually. The performance overall is committed, enthusiastic and sympathetic. It is aided by an outstanding recording.

The liner notes by the soloist are succinct and provide most of the information needed to enjoy this recital. Dates of each composer would have been helpful. Some composition dates given in the track listing were wrong: I have noted the corrections above.

For details of Peter Jacobs’s achievement, please see my review of his British Piano Collection Volume 1 in these pages.

This captivating second anthology of rarely heard British piano music is a fantastic addition to Peter Jacobs record catalogue. One hopes that there will be many more.

Track Listing:
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)
Petite Suite de Concert (c.1911)
Greville Cooke (1894-1989)
High Marley Rest (1933)
Frederick Delius (1862-1934)
Mazurka and Waltz for a Little Girl from Five Pieces (1922-23)
Christopher Headington (1930-96)
Toccata (1963)
Edmund Rubbra (1901-86)
Eight Preludes, op.131 (1966)
Cyril Scott (1879-1970)
Lotus Land (1905)
Cecil Armstrong Gibbs (1889-1960)
After Rain (Rydal Beck); Quiet Winter (Tarn Hows) from Lakeland Pictures, op.98 (1940)
Cecil Baumer (1891-1937)
Idyll (1935)
John Mayer (1930-2004)
Calcutta-Nagar (1993)
Peter Jacobs (piano)
rec. 14 May and 16 September 2024, Wyastone Concert Hall, Monmouth. 

Heritage HTGCD 131

John McCabe: Pastorale Sostenuto for organ (1965)

Whilst recently revisiting Alun Hoddinott’s Intrada for organ, I discovered John McCabe’s short Pastorale Sostenuto in the same volume. It was written in 1965 as a commission from Oxford University Press for the first of two volumes of Easy Modern Organ Music, which was duly published in 1967. Other works in this album included Kenneth Leighton’s Fanfare, William Mathias’s Chorale, Christopher Brown’s Nocturne, and Arnold Cooke’s Impromptu.

John McCabe (1939-2015) was a distinguished British composer and concert pianist. Born in Huyton, Liverpool, he was inspired by the music-filled environment of his childhood. He wrote over 150 works, including symphonies, ballets, and solo piano pieces. Notable compositions include the orchestral song cycle Notturni ed Alba and the Concerto for Orchestra, which brought him international recognition. McCabe also served as the director of the London College of Music from 1983 to 1990.

Apart from the Pastorale, McCabe also wrote a Nocturne for the companion series, Modern Organ Music Book 1, (1965). Important works for Novello include the Sinfonia (1961), Dies Resurrectionis (1963), Le Poisson Magique (1964), Johannis Partita (1964), Prelude (in Music before Service) (1964), and Elegy (1965). McCabe's organ music often features intricate counterpoint and rich harmonic language, demonstrating his profound understanding of the instrument's capabilities.

The Pastorale Sostenuto is a miniature, lasting for about three minutes. It is written in binary form. A solo flute-like figure is heard in the opening bars, which then dominates the piece:

Played initially by the right hand only, it is joined by soft, dissonant chords on the swell. Repeated over and over again it is soon accompanied with a counterpoint of the above figure in inversion. There are several changes of time signature, between 6/8 and 9/8. The ‘trio’ section is based on an eight-note figure:

This is reiterated eight times supported by triads in root position or first inversion. The final part of the work reprises the opening theme, this time in the tenor register. It is complemented by chords of the seventh, before the Pastorale concludes with a long, sustained chord and a final allusion to the main theme in the upper register.

The impact of this piece is well summed up by the word “hypnotic” or even “minimalist.” It is not hard to imagine a classical background revelling in Theocritean shepherds or even Pan himself.

The John McCabe Bio-Bibliography (Stewart R. Craggs, Greenwood Press, 1991) gives little information about this work. Apart from the publication data, the author was unable to trace the premiere performance. To my knowledge, it has not been recorded for LP or CD.

Listen to John McCabe’s Pastorale Sostenuto on YouTube, here. It is played by Rhys Arvidson on the William Anderson Pipe Organ located in the Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Williamstown, Melbourne Australia.

Alexander Mackenzie’s A Musician’s Narrative Reviewed by Punch

Alexander Campbell Mackenzie (b Edinburgh, 22 Aug 1847; d London, 28 April 1935) was a Scottish composer, who was educated at the Royal Academy of Music, (of which he was later to become the Principal) He had further studies in Germany, where he made the acquaintance of Franz Liszt. (Unlike most of his English contemporaries he was brought up to music as a fiddler and an orchestral player rather than as an organist.) He was an indefatigable organiser both in London and in Scotland and an adventurous conductor. As a composer he endeavoured to blend Scottish nationalism, with advanced German romantic expression. Examples of this fusion are The Cotter's Saturday Night, to a text by Robert Burns, set for chorus and orchestra, his Scottish Rhapsodies and his Pibroch suite for violin). He wrote oratorios which were perhaps less successful, musically, and technically than his orchestral pieces, good deal of effective theatre music. He also composed two operas: The Cricket on the Hearth (1902) and The Eve of St. John (1924) and much chamber music.

A Musician's Narrative by Alexander Campbell Mackenzie is a fascinating account of his life and career. Published by Cassells and Co. London in 1927, it offers insights into his experiences as a violinist, organist, conductor, composer, and educator. The narrative provides a detailed look at his efforts to establish a National Opera in Britain, his interactions with notable figures like Carl Rosa, Franz Liszt and Anton Rubenstein as well as his reflections on the challenges and triumphs of his career. It is an essential read for anyone interested in the history of Victorian and Edwardian British music and Mackenzie's contributions to it.

The British weekly magazine Punch, or The London Charivari, established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and Ebenezer Landells. Its special brand of satire and humour soon made it popular. Topic covered included social, political, and cultural matters. It was the earliest journal to uses the term “cartoon” in its modern sense.

On 7 December 1927 (p.27) it published this humorous poem as a “review” of Mackenzie’s new volume. It also notes the composer passing his eightieth year.

Mackenzie, good Sir Alexander,

For many years, the wise commander

Of the historic Music school,

Which greatly prospered by his rule,

Has happily been moved to give,

In A Musician's Narrative,

The record of the strenuous part

He played in furthering native art,

As teacher and administrator,

Player, conductor and creator;

Wielding a pen—although he's eighty -

Witty and gay as well as weighty.

Of all the greatest in the muster

That lent the old regime its lustre

He has some first-hand tale to tell,

And tells it excellently well –

Of Liszt and Rubinstein and "Joe,"

And all the stars of long ago.

For, to be frank, our dear Mackenzie

Finds little more than sound and frenzy,

In short, what younger folk call" tripe,"

In music of the latest type.

Here, otherwise benign, and mellow,

He's prone to seeing red and yellow,

And finds a gloomy satisfaction

In noting symptoms of reaction.

With this small cavil,

I commend His genial book (which Cassell's send)

As worthy of an honoured friend,

Known and admired since '84,

Old " Mac," four-square, though now four-score.

“Joe” could be one of a number of characters. Most likely it refers to the great Joseph Joachim (1831-1907) was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer, and teacher, and known to Mackenzie.