When CD companies begin a series
of albums covering the ‘complete’ works of a composer, I always worry. Over my
lifetime I have seen several of these projects started and then suddenly the
enthusiasm or the investment dries up. With Christopher Guild’s survey of the
complete piano music of Ronald Stevenson we seem to be on solid ground. Volume
1 was released in 2017 and since then three further albums have hit the streets
at regular intervals. The pianist has told me that Volume 5 is ‘on the stocks’
and will feature transcriptions of music by Henry Purcell, Bernard van Dieren,
Frederick Delius and Bernard Stevens.
In
Volume 4, Christopher Guild had included transcriptions of opera and a variety
of songs, both ‘popular’ and ‘art’ and a single original work. A paradigm for
appreciating Ronald Stevenson’s music is to understand that his style is an
amalgam of Scottish inspiration (despite the fact that he was born in
Blackburn, Lancashire in 1928), a profound understanding of contemporary
Western musical developments as well as an encyclopaedic knowledge of
indigenous music from around the world. Importantly, Stevenson was equally at
home in making transcriptions of other composer’s music as he was in producing
original scores. There is no genre or style of music that was beneath him.
The
CD opens with an arrangement of some extracts from pianist, composer and
briefly Prime Minister of Poland, Ignacy Jan Paderewski’s (1860–1941) only
opera Manru. The plot of the work concerns a village girl Ulana and
documents her love for the gipsy Manru. Stevenson has created a suite of four
pieces. The ‘Introduction and Gipsy March’ reflects on Ulana’s mother’s
fear for her daughter as she plans to elope with Manru. The ‘Gipsy Song’ is taken from a violin solo,
where the fiddler Jogu attempts to call Manru back to the nomadic life. The ‘Lullaby’, sung to Ulana’s child (was
Manru the father?) is followed by a Polish national dance, the ‘Cracovienne’.
Listen out for the ‘bagpipe’ drones here. Not, apparently to ‘Scottify’ the
Polish music, but to generate a mood of rusticity. The added value of this attractive
Suite is quite simply hearing music that would have been largely lost if
Stevenson had not turned his pianistic interest towards it. I understand that a
recording of the opera was made in 2001. There is also a YouTube performance of
the complete opera.
An ‘original’ ‘Song without
Words’ follows. I will not spoil the narrative of this work’s genesis, save to
say that Martin Anderson, the founder and executive producer of Toccata Records
called the work into being in 1987 as a birthday gift to a lady. It is a
special little piece that includes the obligatory ‘Happy Birthday’ tune as well
as some delicious, slightly dark-hued harmonies. The whole story is given in the liner notes.
Another charming operatic
transcription derives from Gustave Charpentier’s (1860-1956) masterpiece Louise
(1900). Stevenson’s short ‘Romance’ paraphrases
the love duet at the beginning of Act III. Here, the lovers sing of their
happiness and love for each other in their new pied à terre in Paris. This transcription was dedicated to
the composer’s wife, Marjorie.
Every wannabe poet thinks that they
can write Haiku by the dozen. The reality is that most will be rubbish and
never match up to the great exponents of this literary device developed by
Matsuo Bashō and his ‘school’. Stevenson
wrote a song cycle in 1971 setting several haiku in translation. In 2006 he
transcribed these songs for solo piano. They were first heard in this
arrangement at a Ronald Stevenson Society event on the picturesque Isle of
Cumbrae in the Clyde Estuary. This pleasingly textured music makes use of the
pentatonic (five note) and heptatonic (seven note) scales. These reflect the
traditional number of syllables in a haiku (5-7-5). Each piece is given a
typically gnomic title ending with a concluding ‘Epilogue.’ One of the most captivating
moments is a short interlude: The Blossoming Cherry (Aubade). The liner
notes explain that Stevenson had the texts of the Haikus printed in the score.
It is a pity that these poems have not been included in the liner notes.
The main event on this disc are
the three published volumes of L’Art Nouveau du chant appliqué au piano
composed between 1980 and 1988. They are modelled on Swiss-born composer-pianist
Sigismond Thalberg’s (1812–71), L’Art du chant appliqué au piano written
in 1853–63.
The
present work is a collection of transcriptions, arrangements, paraphrases and
reinventions of a wide range of songs. Most of these were ‘popular’ when Stevenson
was a boy and many would have been heard at amateur recitals, pierhead concerts
and in church halls. Examples include an idiomatic setting of Frank Bridge’s (1879-1941)
‘Go not Happy Day’ where the elder composer’s swirling piano accompaniment has
been retained with the exuberant melody skilfully interposed. It is my
favourite number in this set. Ivor Novello’s (1893-1951) once greatly loved
songs ‘We’ll gather lilacs’ and ‘Fly Home, Little Heart’ are given the full
cocktail pianist treatment. Stephen Foster (1826-64) is a largely forgotten
composer. Bing Crosby may have had a major hit with ‘Beautiful Dreamer’, but
Foster’s sun has largely set. Even so, Stevenson has imbued magic into this
song as well as ‘I dream of Jeannie with the light brown hair’ and ‘Come where
my love lies dreaming’. Arias by Giacomo Meyerbeer (1791-1864) from Les Huguenots
and Sigmund Romberg’s (1887-1951) Maytime are characteristically well
wrought. Samuel Coleridge Taylor’s (1875-1912) gorgeous ‘Demande et Résponse’
still gets the occasional outing in CD collections of light music. I have a published
piano version made by the composer in my piano stool. It is a truly lovely
piece, that would bring a tear the eye. And who now recalls Maud Valérie White’s
(1855-1937) ‘So we’ll go no more A Roving’? This was a once hugely popular song
whose magic is recaptured by Stevenson’s arrangement. From start to finish, the three volumes of L’Art
Nouveau du chant appliqué au piano are a pleasure and a delight to listen
to. One is always conscious of Ronald Stevenson’s consummate skill at realising
other composer’s music into his own medium of piano solo. Every one of these
twelve numbers is a gem. The three Foster songs are premiere performances. I
understand that there are other examples of these transcriptions in the
catalogue, including Arnold Bax’s ‘The White Peace’ and ‘My Lagan Love’ by
Hamilton Harty…
Christopher Guild has taken all these
pieces to his heart. As I noted in my review of Volume 3 of this project, he
has a clear understanding of, and sympathy with, Ronald Stevenson’s eclectic
musical style. The booklet essay, as always, is helpful, interesting and
informative. It is written by the present pianist.
I thoroughly enjoyed this latest
volume in Christopher Guild’s survey or Ronald Stevenson’s piano music.
Glancing at the catalogue in Colin Scott-Sutherland’s Symposium (Toccata
Press, 2005) on the composer, there are still plenty of piano works to
rediscover.
Track Listing:
Ronald STEVENSON (1928-2015)
Suite from Paderewski’s
Manru (1961): 1. Introduction and Gipsy March [4:22], No.2 Gipsy Song
[3:43], No.3 Lullaby [2:56], No.4 Cracovienne [4:07
Song without Words (1988) [2:12]
Nine Haiku (1971, arr. 2006): No. 1 Dedication
[1:06], No. 2 The Fly [0:50], No. 3 Gone Away [2:05], No. 4 Nocturne [1:29],
No. 5 Master and Pupil [0:40], No. 6 Spring [1:27], Interlude: The Blossoming
Cherry (Aubade) [2:12], No. 7 Curfew [1:23], No. 8 Hiroshima [0:43], No. 9
Epilogue [1:58]
Charpentier: Louise – Romance (c.1970) [3:10]
L’Art Nouveau du chant appliqué au piano (1980–88) Volume
One: No. 1 Coleridge-Taylor: Elëanore (1980) [3:53], No. 2 White: So We’ll go no
more a-roving (1980) [5:52], No. 3 Meyerbeer: Romance: Plus blanche que la plus
blanche hermine (Les Huguenots) (1975) [5:42], No. 4 Rachmaninov: In the
Silent Night (1982) [3:17]; No. 5 Bridge: Go not, happy day! (1980) [2:00]
Volume Two: No. 1 Novello: Fly Home, Little Heart (?1980) [3:03],
No. 2 Novello: We’ll Gather Lilacs (1980) [4:23], No. 3 Coleridge-Taylor:
Demande et Réponse (1981) [1:28], No. 4 Romberg: Will you remember? (Maytime)
(1988) [1:15]
Volume Three: No. 1 Foster: Jeanie with the light brown hair
(1980) [2:44], No. 2 Come where my love lies dreaming (1980) [4:27], No. 3
Beautiful Dreamer (1980) [2:49]
Christopher Guild (piano)
Rec. Turner Sims Concert Hall, Southampton, 17 February 2019
(Suite from Paderewski’s ‘Manru’, Louise – Romance and L’Art Nouveau du chant
appliqué au piano) and 24 February 2019 (Song without Words and Nine Haiku)
TOCCATA CLASSICS TOCC 0555 [75:17]
With thanks to MusicWeb International where this review was first published.
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