Mary Dullea piano
Métier Mex 77139
Eric Craven is a composer who eschews publicity and about whom little is known. He taught mathematics for many years in his native Manchester, and following crisis of health, decided to devote himself to composition. He has composed since his youth, but only recently and at the urging of a number of eminent pianists, was persuaded to make his work publicly available.
His compositional technique is aleatoric, but in a form that appears to be unique to him. His term for this is ‘non-prescriptive’ and he identifies three forms of notation. High-order Non-Prescription offers only notes and chords written in black noteheads with no stems to indicate duration or groupings. In Middle-Order Non-Prescription, short fragments with pitches and rhythms are presented on the page in a disconnected manner with no implied sequence or ordering. High-order Non-Prescription presents only notes and chords written in black noteheads with no stems to indicate duration or groupings. In addition, the performer may observe, repeat reorder or even ignore notes at will. Naturally, this means that no two performances are alike, even by the same performer.
The adoption of this technique raises questions concerning the status of the both the composer and the performer. It is an indication of this uncertainty that Mary Dullea’s performances are described as ‘realisations’, which is the composer’s preferred term. On the evidence of this recording, Mary Dullea is clearly a virtuoso pianist, and she brings a palpable sense of commitment to these pieces.
The musical idiom is tonal with a huge variety of musical gesture, all of which would be entirely different with another performer. Mary Dullea’s notes on the individual sections of the set are invaluable. She says that, ‘I have to continually evaluate the preparation and practice strategies I employ; I need to be open to how my own performance history is tapped into, questioning if a hidden reference (to something pre-existent) is what I actually want, or even if it is something that Eric has codified, when something sounds a little familiar, yet different;’
I found this a fascinating release, even if I have no desire to experience the same degree of artistic freedom that the performer must adopt to realise this music. In terms of what is usually described as ‘experimental music’, this is among the most approachable examples that I have encountered, although I feel that the work would benefit from being sampled in groups of movements, rather than individually or as a complete work of two hours, twelve minutes and ten seconds.
A most intriguing recording to which I know I shall return.
Review by Martyn Strachan