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The British Music Society:
BMS News 101, March 2004 page 141: Sounds Alive: Chisholm Centenary
Concert
On 4th January 2004 at the Wigmore Hall, Murray McLachlan presented
an extraordinary recital of piano music. The concert marked the
start of the centenary celebrations for the Scottish composer
Erik Chisholm who was born on 4th January 1904 and died on 8th
June 1965. Thanks to the efforts of his daughter Dr Morag Chisholm
and a dedicated body of like-minded musicians, Erik Chisholm
is now at last getting some of the attention he deserves in the
concert hall. As the programme notes made clear it was the sort
of recital that Leopold Godowsky would have described as a ‘phonorama’ of
Erik Chisholm.
In choosing the programme Murray McLachlan sought out composers
who had particular association with Chisholm. Bartók was
invited by Chisholm to Glasgow in the 1930s after Chisholm had
founded the Active Society for the Propagation of Contemporary
Music, a society that ran for 10 years between 1930 and 1940
and which saw Chisholm inviting Hindemith, Sorabji, Szymanowski
as well as Bartók to Glasgow to perform their works. Janacek
was a particular passion of Chisholm’s. In his last years
Chisholm wrote the first major study in English of Janacek’s
operas, a testament to his understanding and commitment to the
Czech composer at a time when he was little known. Busoni also
held much significance for Chisholm and he conducted many of
his works including the vast piano concerto. Bartók, Janacek
and Busoni all provided aesthetic models for Chisholm and their
influence can be traced in his work. However, rather than being
merely a MacBartók, (or a MacJanacek come to that!), Chisholm
was able to assimilate his influences in order to develop a unique
style that is essentially cosmopolitan in outlook. His incorporation
of Pibroch bagpipe figurations or Hindu ragas reflect a mind
fascinated by the different modes of musical expression. In his
wide-ranging musical taste he most closely resembles John Foulds.
As well as Bartók, Sorabji, Janacek and Busoni, McLachlan
also presented a work by a composer who might be considered one
of Chisholm’s aesthetic heirs, namely, Ronald Stevenson.
The resulting programme was deeply challenging and rewarding.
The concert opened with the Out of Doors Suite, Volume One by
Bartók. McLachlan points out in his notes that Bartók
may have learnt about Scots folk music from Chisholm. To have
been a fly on the wall during their discussions.
The Bartók was followed by a very short piece with a
very long title. The Fantasiettina sul nome del-l’Egregio
poeta Hugh MacDiarmid ossia Christopher Grieve MCMLXI, by Sorabji
presents in a condensed form most of the characteristics of this
composer: volcanic eruptions involving the whole range of the
piano, sudden changes of mood, ecstatic reveries with tenor melodies
surrounded by a halo of filigree. Sorabji’s piece has been
realized by Ronald Stevenson and McLachlan brought off the kaleidoscopic
mood changes with obvious relish.
The centrepiece of the concert was the Sonata in A (1939) ‘An
Rioban Dearg’ by Erik Chisholm. McLachlan ‘s performance
was the London première of this large-scale work. It is
possible that it hasn’t been heard in public since 1939.
Thankfully the composer’s daughter, Morag, has rediscovered
the missing fragments of the manuscript and the work is now available
again. It is perhaps pointless to speculate how influential this
work may have been for composers working in the ‘forties
and ‘fifties. Had it become part of the repertoire in 1939
it is inconceivable that other composers would have not responded
to it, for in my opinion it is one of the major piano works of
the 20th century. This is music that bursts from the page in
an unstoppable flow of energy and intellectual power. It demands
to be heard. The very first notes reveal Chisholm has a major
personality in music of his time. More recent composers such
as Peter Maxwell Davies and James MacMillan have made much use
of Scottish folk elements particularly bagpipe ornamentation
techniques. Musicologists unaware of Chisholm’s compositions
might make a mistake of affording these composers primacy in
using these elements in concert music. A re-evaluation must now
clearly take place for Chisholm was able to fuse folk elements
so completely with his own style that he achieved compositional
ownership of them in the way that Vaughan Williams was able to
do with English folk elements.
This giant among piano sonatas began with a movement marked
Molto moderato. The influence of piping was evident from the
start although it was integral to the structure of the movement
as a whole and was well contrasted with different material. Halfway
through the movement a breathtaking series of arpeggios was heard
as if the fountains of the Villa d’Este had suddenly found
their way to Glasgow. The scherzo followed. This was sheer delight
with a rollicking 3+3+2 quaver rhythm providing a rhythmic ostinato.
The melody was full of grace notes. The slow movement was the
emotional heart of the work. It was subtitled Lament: Thetis,
June 3rd, 1939. It commemorates the submarine disaster, which
clearly affected Chisholm. I found this movement deeply moving
as it unfolded with the momentum of the Bruckner Adagio. The
finale introduced a more optimistic tone and provided an emotional
contrast to the preceding lament. McLachlan brought off the phenomenal
technical demands of this 40-minute work with aplomb. It was
very moving to hear such great music performed after so many
decades of silence.
After the interval Murray McLachlan continued with Janacek’s
Piano Sonata I.X.1905 ‘From the Street’. This work
is now quite familiar although Janacek himself thought nothing
of it. As the programme notes made clear it was only thanks to
a student of the composer’s that the work was saved from
oblivion.
Ronald Stevenson’s piano music has been performed by a
number of pianists in recent years, for example Raymond Clarke
and Mark André Hamelin. Stevenson is perhaps best known
for his Passacaglia on DSCH, which is one of the great masterpieces
in piano literature. However, given the presence of Chisholm’s
large sonata and the huge Busoni work that was to end the concert
it was not surprising that McLachlan chose a short, light-hearted
piece to represent Stevenson’s work. The Threepenny Sonatina,
based on themes from Weill’s Threepenny Opera, revealed
Stevenson’s ability to combine several of the themes from
the opera with both contrapuntal ingenuity and humour. Mack the
Knife was very much to the fore at the start. Later it was combined
with other themes from the opera. It was Erik Chisholm who appointed
Ronald Stevenson to the position of senior lecturer at Cape Town
University in 1963. It was therefore most appropriate that Stevenson’s
work was heard during the centenary celebration. McLachlan was
alive to the twists and turns in this ingenious work. Here is
a pianist whose lightning responses to the challenges of Stevenson’s
music make him an ideal candidate for performing such works as
the Passacaglia or the Symphonic Elegy in memory of Franz Liszt.
It is to be hoped that he will play more Stevenson works in the
future.
Busoni’s Fantasia Contrappuntistica provided a most fitting
conclusion to this superb concert. McLachlan showed no signs
of flagging as he entered the daunting world of Busoni’s
reworking of Bach’s Art of Fugue. Like all the works in
the programme the virtuosity was never an end in itself and the
structure of the music was never obscured by mere display. I
was perhaps not alone in feeling the influence of Liszt working
through many of the composers presented by Murray McLachlan.
With composers such as Chisholm, Sorabji and Stevenson it is
possible to hear how a line of musical inquiry has been followed
from Liszt right up to the present day. Such music as was presented
at this concert may never become popular classics but, for listeners
prepared to explore the work of these masters, the rewards will
surely prove more long-lasting than the instant gratification
so foolishly demanded by so much of modern culture.
David Hackbridge-Johnson
Chisholm BMS 101 review.doc
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