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More Bizarre or baRock

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Elizabeth Anderson (harpsichord) and friends

MOVE CD 3326

reviewed by Neville Cohn

3326

For those who think of the harpsichord exclusively in terms of its repertoire dating back to the pre-piano era, Elizabeth Anderson’s latest compact disc may well prove startling. Certainly, it is one of the most delightfully entertaining recitals on the instrument I’ve heard in a long time.

Some years ago, film fans watching Margaret Rutherford, the first – and most redoubtable  –  incarnations of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple, would have heard its quirky theme music played on a harpsichord which, at that time, was a most unexpected departure from the norm. It brought home the idiosyncratic timbre of the instrument to millions who might never have heard, or even thought about, the harpsichord.

Much of this collection is in this delightfully zany tradition.

Elizabeth Anderson has done much to familiarise listeners with the instrument in unexpected styles, such as Franzpeter Goebels’ Chocolate Boogie, its anarchic measures a clear indication of what is to follow. Anderson seems positively to relish coming to grips with Andrew Koll’s Fuguedelic, after which there is a brief return to what might call stylistic normality with a fine reading of the first of Bach’s 48 Preludes and Fugues. Then it’s back to the bizarre with Templeton’s Bach Goes to Town.

Bach’s arrangement for harpsichord of Vivaldi’s Concerto in D receives first rate treatment by Anderson in a performance which underscores the music’s many dramatic moments. Earl Scruggs’ Foggy Mountain Breakdown calls up images of a boozy hillbilly celebration.

Those who delight in Chopin’s magisterial Polonaises may well find Couperin’s and Telemann’s versions of the dance rather less athletic and intense than those of the Polish master.

Jill Lowe’s baRock is a fine vehicle for Anderson’s virtuosity, especially rapid repeated notes which are played with huge flair. Certainly, the inherent grandeur of the piece comes across splendidly.

One of the most celebrated of all harpsichordists – George Malcolm – wrote a cheeky, insouciant version of the hornpipe and Anderson gives bracing point and meaning to it. Martin Peerson’s Fall of the Leafe, however, can’t hold a candle to Giles Farnaby’s exquisite miniature of the same name.  Purcell’s Round O will be instantly recognised by many as the theme Benjamin Britten used for his Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra tossed off with enviable ease. Ligeti’s Continuum is a little miracle of flawless fingerwork.

Throughout, Anderson’s artistry is complemented by co-musicians Rosie Westbrook, Tony Floyd, Ariel Valent and Ron Nagorka.


Bist du bei mir – Anna Magdalena Bach’s Book

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Bist du bei mir – Anna Magdalena Bach’s Book

Jacob Lawrence (boy soprano)
Elizabeth Anderson (harpsichord)

MOVE MCD 3304

reviewed by Neville Cohn

 

 

Innumerable young piano pupils have cut their musical teeth on the easier pieces contained in the Notebook of Anna Magdalena Bach such as the two ubiquitous Minuets in G, routinely massacred by indifferently taught youngsters blissfully ignorant of the elegance and stateliness that lie at their heart.

It takes a musician of high order, such as Elizabeth Anderson (in superb form) to reveal the magic enshrined in these deceptively easy miniatures and her every contribution provides unalloyed listening delight. Indeed, I’ve returned to this recording on a number of occasions for the pleasure of experiencing Anderson’s artistry.

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How gratifyingly she mines each piece for its aesthetic essence. The French Suite in D minor is meticulously detailed as is the Partita No 3 in A minor. I especially admired the Burlesca which unfolds at a good, sturdy pace – and Anderson elsewhere taps into the joyousness that is enshrined in so many of the movements, not least the finely detailed Gigue.

Among the delights of this compilation is Les Bergeries, its phrasing shaped to allow the music to breathe in the most musical way. And that mainstay of eisteddfod competitions – the Solo per il Cembalo (by C.P.E.Bach) is given splendidly emphatic rhythmic underpinning. The little March in E flat is magically buoyant.

There are also a number of tracks devoted to the singing of boy soprano Jacob Lawrence. Although I am sure that great seriousness of purpose was brought to these recordings, some disconcertingly uneven intonation is problematical.

Not the least of the pleasures of this offering is the quality of the liner notes; they make fascinating reading and contribute in a very real way to enhancing listening pleasure.

Neville Cohn Copyright 2006


Convict Harpsichordist

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convict1Elizabeth Anderson (harpsichord)

MOVE CD 3242

 

reviewed by Neville Cohn

Harpsichord playing at a very high level, meticulously researched notes with fascinating illustrations and CD-ROM images combine to unusually satisfying effect here.

Who was John Grant and how does he fit into the colonial history of New South Wales? What did he do that, centuries later, makes him a figure of fascination? The story, very briefly, is this: Grant had taken a fancy to one Anna Ward who lived in London. But her mother and one John Townsend, who was her mother’s lawyer (and Anna’s guardian) were dead set against the match and told Grant in no uncertain terms.

This infuriated the touchy Grant who challenged Townsend to a duel. Townsend, instead of trying to calm the agitated Grant, inflamed the situation by walking away from it – and grant then impulsively shot Townsend in the buttock (whether right or left is not revealed in the liner notes). For this rash act, Grant was sentenced to death. But only hours before the sentence was to be carried out, King George III commuted the sentence to transportation for life to the then-infant colony of New South Wales.

And when Grant set sail for the antipodes in 1804, he took along his harpsichord, this being the first ever such instrument brought to the antipodes.

As soon as he landed, Grant began his quest for a pardon, lobbying anyone whom he thought might advance his case. But his abrasive manner did him little good initially as he got up the noses of various NSW bigwigs, often gate-crashing governmental garden parties and button-holing anyone he thought could advance his case.

The versatile Grant also put in stints as lay preacher on Norfolk Island and as lay clergyman at Coal River near Newcastle. He even asked Governor Bligh (of Bounty mutiny fame) to help get him pardoned. Perhaps, just to get him out their hair, Grant was eventually pardoned and sailed home in 1811 to be re-united with his mother who had herself applied more than a little pressure to the newly-appointed Governor Macquarie when he took tea with her at the old lady’s Sloan Street home in London where she doubtless bent the governor-designate’s ear as she spoke of her yearning to be re-united with her son.

How all the aforegoing relates to the music on this compact disc is this: while it cannot be said with certainty what sort of music Grant played on his well-travelled harpsichord, all the works on this compilation were freely available in London at the time Grant was bundled off to NSW. Elizabeth Anderson, who, some time ago, made an impressive recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, is here in magnificent form. Certainly, her magisterial readings embody a quality of nobility that is only very rarely encountered on CD – and all the more satisfying for that.

I especially admired Scarlatti’s Sonata in F minor, K386, with Anderson’s artistry drawing the listener ineluctably into the composer’s idiosyncratic sound and mood world. And Handel’s Suite No 5 is given a frankly magnificent reading; the disc is worth having if only to listen to playing of such impeccable style.

The sound engineers, doubtless inspired by Anderson’s Olympian readings, have done her proud; recorded sound is uniformly excellent.

Adding to the pleasure of this exceptional product are fascinatingly illustrated liner notes, a 19-minute CD-ROM video about John Grant’s extraordinary story as well as a specially commissioned work for harpsichord by Ron Nagorcka – This Beauteous Wicked Place in which harpsichord sound is overlaid with Australian bush sounds including bird song – and there are the sounds of clapping sticks and didgeridoo as well.

Adding yet another dimension to this idea, Elizabeth Anderson together with an actor reading extracts of Grant’s letters and official documents of the time, have, in the context of the City of London Festival, presented the story and music in quasi-theatrical terms in a foyer of London’s Old Bailey where Grant had been sentenced many years before.It has also been performed in this way in Melbourne.

*In years of reviewing compact discs, many of the highest quality, I have never encountered so satisfying a product as this MOVE CD. For quality of content, fullness of liner notes with accompanying illustrations as well as a fascinating CD-ROM visual component. This is a product that ought to be recognised as the model it is; it deserves the very highest praise.

© Neville Cohn 2004