Heather Tuach cello
Yoko Misumi piano
Divine Art ddx 21123
This album is a selection of works by 20th and 21st century composers chosen by the performers who are members of the Greenwich Trio. The album shares its title with that of the first piece by Liz Dilnot Johnson who has provided a set of four pieces arranged especially for this release.
I was particularly struck by the third piece of the set, Lacrimosa, which is taken from the composer’s large-scale work When a Child is a Witness – requiem for refugees, which I had the pleasure of reviewing some months ago. The transcription is most effective, with the sombre tone colour of the cello adding an additional sense of desolation. The contrast with the fourth movement, On Malvern Hill, is very pronounced, the set ending with what sounds like a pastoral jig, yet I detect no debt to earlier examples of the idiom, which in British music are hardly lacking.
Another virtue of the disc is the juxtaposition of well-known and established figures with others, who are less familiar. Jennifer Higdon, Jocelyn Morlock, Elizabeth Maconchy and Nadia Boulanger are all prominent names, even if Boulanger’s compositions have been overshadowed by her extraordinary work as a teacher of composition. The first two pieces in her group began as pieces for organ.
The most substantial works are Lalai by Barbara Heller, based on a song written by a group of intellectuals who were executed in Tehran in 1973 and Halcyon by Jocelyn Morlock. The larger canvass for these pieces is welcome among what is otherwise a sequence of works which are all less than five minutes duration.
I would hope for the appearance of a second album containing a similarly constructed programme of music by women composers for the same forces, which explored examples of longer items from the repertory. The expressive variety in those which have been selected on this occasion is extraordinary, but the brevity of some of the pieces leaves one a little unsatisfied.
The performances are deeply committed and the recording is beyond reproach with a perfectly natural-sounding balance between the two instruments, which is not an easy thing to achieve. This is a beguiling release which makes an excellent case for this repertoire without an attempt at special pleading. This is simply first-rate music superbly performed. It would also be an excellent introduction for any listener who may be timorous about exploring contemporary music.
Review by Martyn Strachan