Liverpool-born
John McCabe (1939-2015) needs no special pleading. Regarded by many as one of
the most important late 20th/21st century British
composers, he was also a pianist with huge technical skill, profound
musicianship and a sympathetic understanding of the wide range of music he performed.
For me, my introduction to McCabe’s playing was the Haydn Piano Sonata cycle
back in the mid-1970s. Now issued on CD this remains my go-to account for these
remarkable and absorbing works.
The present
double-disc set is a reissue of two Hyperion Records (A66025 and A66057)
released on vinyl in 1981. I never owned these LPs but recall seeing them in
the once-unique Banks’s Music shop in York.
Domenico
Scarlatti was born in Naples in 1685 and died in Madrid in 1757. His reputation
rests on his harpsichord pieces and his influence on the development of the
forte-piano. Scarlatti composed some 555 ‘sonatas’ and several other pieces for
the keyboard. Many of his compositions reflected the urbane dance forms of his
day: he was influenced by contemporary Italian music as well as Spanish folk
dance. The overarching style of Domenico Scarlatti’s music mirrors the trend
towards ‘modern’ pianism. He eschewed reliance on counterpoint so integral to
the Baroque era and began to explore ‘new’ musical textures using chords,
scalar runs, arpeggios and tremolo effects. Scarlatti wrote a considerable
number of operas, which are now largely forgotten, although several have been
revived.
I will not
give my thoughts about each of these Sonatas. There are a dozen examples here. I
suggest that the listener takes them a couple at a time: they deserve
concentration. It is difficult to put these works into a chronological scheme
as most were published after Scarlatti’s death. John McCabe plays these works
on a modern concert grand piano with no detriment to the success and enjoyment
of this music. The tempi of some of
these sonatas were criticised in a contemporary review in The Gramophone
(January 1982). I am not an authority on the performance of 18th
century Italian music: all I can say is that thus music seems to me to be
played with a studied balance between flair, rhythmic freedom and a
characteristic attention to detail. Others may disagree. I enjoyed them all,
especially my favourite here, the Sonata in G minor, K.43.
Muzio Clementi for me is an adopted Englishman. He spent much time teaching and performing in this country. He died in the Worcestershire town of Evesham in 1832. Any
understanding of Clementi’s style must begin from a historical
perspective: at his birth Handel was still alive, and at his death Beethoven,
Schubert and Weber had all been buried. His lifetime saw the stylistic
transition from the late Baroque era into Romanticism by way of Classicism.
Clementi’s music followed a trajectory from a highly virtuosic style towards a
deeper lyricism, but the mood was nearly always ‘classical’ in its outlook. In
his final years he was pushing the boundaries towards the pianism of the
Romantic age including Chopin and John Field.
Muzio
Clementi’s earlier sonatas tended to be sub-Scarlatti, but he soon moved away
from two-movement towards three movement examples which soon came to define the
genre. He has been dubbed ‘the father of modern piano playing’ who pioneered a greater
understanding of the mechanical and technical differences between the older
keyboard instruments and the ‘modern’ piano.
For those of
us who battled with several of Clementi’s didactic works over they years, the
hearing of his major piano pieces as presented on the second CD in this set,
will be a pleasant surprise. Clementi composed more than a hundred piano
sonatas, with the ‘easier’ ones being designated ‘sonatinas.’ I appreciate the characteristically
lighter touch of Clementi’s style. In many ways I enjoy his piano music more
than that of Beethoven. Not all will agree with me…
John
McCabe’s well-chosen Clementi programme includes three full sonatas and three
numbers from the remarkable Twelve Monferrinas, op.49.
The Piano
Sonata in G minor, op. 50, no. 3 (Didone Abbandonata - scena
tragica) is the only sonata that Clementi gave a ‘programmatic title’. It was
his last essay in the genre. The work is
loosely based on an operatic libretto that tells of the tragedy of Dido and
Aeneas. The music evokes Dido’s emotions on seeing her lover depart – ‘rage,
jealousy and yearning’. This Sonata is full of attractive things with a slow
introduction followed by music of lyrical perfection. The slow movement is a ‘lament’
which is surely one of the most beautiful things from Clementi’s pen. The mood
changes with the finale which romps through a wide range of sentiments with passion
and fury predominating.
Glyn
Pursglove in these files has given a
good summing up of this impressive Sonata. He declares that it might ‘reasonably
be described as “an opera without words” in the sense that Mendelssohn’s later
piano pieces seek to be ‘songs without words.’’
I would swap
much ‘classical’ piano music for the slow movement, ‘andante dolente’ of this
Sonata. And the finale fair takes one’s breath away. It is amazingly played by
John McCabe.
We are in
less-troubled waters with the short Sonata in F major, op.33, no.2. This work
is marked out by the slow introduction, followed by a stormy ‘allegro con
fuoco.’ There is no ‘slow movement as such’: the work concludes with an
intimate and unthreatening ‘presto.’ It is one of those pieces that give
pleasure from the first note to the last.
Instead of
playing another Sonata, John McCabe provides three extracts from Clementi’s
Twelve Monferrinas, op.49. They are in direct contrast to the more profound
‘late’ sonatas. This set of pieces explores Italians folkdances from Montferrat
in the Piedmont region of Italy. It is interesting to note that these dances
had a certain cult following in London during the early years of the 19th
century. Clementi has taken these ‘pop’ songs and reworked them as vibrant
piano miniatures. They demand attention to detail, a sense of fun and a
creative approach to expression- which is just what John McCabe gives to them.
The final work
on this second disc is the Piano Sonata in D major, op. 40, no. 3, first
published in 1802. The liner notes explain that it could have been written
anytime in the previous five or six years. The mood of this work is one of
tragedy. The opening movement is certainly an impressive feat with a slow
introduction, followed by an ‘allegro’ that deploys some creative modulations. Once again, Clementi provides a middle
movement that is effectively a dirge. Who knows what heartbreak he is lamenting?
The final ‘rondo’ is a tour de force from start to finish, although there is an
episode in the minor key which is deeply felt. The major key returns and all is
well.
The
documentation by the late Harold Truscott and supplemented by the Monica McCabe
is informative, with a good introduction to both composers and an enlightening
discussion of each work. There is an enjoyable essay about how these recordings
came about, as well as a biographic note about John McCabe.
John McCabe
plays this music on a Bösendorfer piano, which was his favourite make of piano
at that time. For me this is a good choice. I concede that early-instrument
enthusiasts may baulk at the use of a modern grand piano and not a contemporary
instrument such as a Broadwood or an earlier forte-piano. As always, in these
matters I (rightly of wrongly) feel that if Clementi or Scarlatti had a modern
concert grand, they would have relished in it. Besides, I love my Bach and
Handel played on the piano so why not Muzio Clementi too?
Track
Listing:
Domenico
SCARLATTI (1685-1757)
CD 1
Sonata in G major, K.105; Sonata in G minor,
K.426; Sonata in D minor, K.517; Sonata in D major, K.490; Sonata in F minor,
K.69; Sonata in F major, K.518; Sonata in E major, K.28; Sonata in E major,
K.215; Sonata in C major, K.133; Sonata in G major, K.259; Sonata in G minor,
K.43; Sonata in C major, K.460.
CD 2
Muzio CLEMENTI (1752-1832)
Piano Sonata in G minor, op. 50, no. 3 (Didone
Abbandonata) (c.1721)
Piano Sonata in F major, op. 33, no. 2 (pub.1874)
Twelve Monferrinas, op.49: no. 4 in C major; no. 3
in E major & no. 12 in C major c.1821)
Piano Sonata in D major, op. 40, no. 3 (pub.1802)
John McCabe (piano)
Rec. Artworker’s Guild, Queen Street, Bloomsbury,
London, 22-24 April 1981
DIVINE ART dda 21231
With thanks to MusicWeb International where this review
was first published.