2018’s concertizing began on 2nd February with a lunchtime concert at Dundee University with a recital of piano music by Arbroath born Morris Pert, part of my project marking his 70th anniversary. Pert has not been heard before in the Ustinov Room, previous performances having taken place in the Chaplaincy, so it was pleasing to play Moon Dances (1973) and the Mountains Suite (2008) to a respectablly sized and at least partly appreciative audience.
A week later I returned to Edinburgh Society of Musicians for the first time in almost two years. Frank Bridge’s Three Improvisations for Left Hand were written 100 years ago for Douglas Fox who was one of a number of Musicians who lost their right hand in WWI. Bridges’ only composition pupil Britten gave up writing piano solos in his 20s, so from the remaining 40 odd years there is only one complete solo piece, Notturno or ‘Night Piece”, a commission by the Leeds Piano Competition. Ronald Stevenson’s Sonatina Serenissima is written in memory of Britten and is very much an example of Stevenson’s Busonian tendency, evoking late Liszt aswell as Britten’s last opera “Death in Venice”.
Next, two set of pieces by composers who studied under James Iliff at the RAM in the 60s. In fact Eddie McGuire’s “Nine Decades” was commissioned by Mary Iliff to mark her husband’s 90th birthday in 2013: each of the short movements is an invention/study based on a different interval, from semitones, seconds etc up to octaves and ninths. There is a real cumulative quality to the work, reminiscent of Hindemith’s much larger Ludus Tonalis. The 4 movements of Janet Graham’s “North East Hauntings” (Snow Sky, Sea Mist, Lullaby for Lost Skylines and Red Dust) are directly inspired by memories of County Durham, but have a resonance relevant to much of Northern Britain. Both these sets will remain in my repertoire. Morris Pert was studying with Alan Bush and James Blades at the RAM at the same time as these last two composers, so his Mountains Suite , characterizing 6 hills in the remote and unpeopled North West of Scotland made a suitable conclusion to the evening.
All this music was very warmly received by the attentive ESM audience and the helpful new office bearers of the Society. I’m keen to return next year.
Mark Spalding musicblog 