COMPOSERS: Scott
LABELS: Dutton/ Dutton/ Dutton/ Genuin
ALBUM TITLE: Scott
WORKS: Complete Piano Music, Vol. 1: Suites & Miniatures
PERFORMER: Leslie De'Ath, Cyril Scott (piano) - Complete Piano Music, Vol. 1Leslie De'Ath (piano) - Vol. 2Leslie De'Ath, Anya Alexeyev (piano) - Vol. 3Michael Schäfer (piano) - Complete Piano Sonatas
CATALOGUE NO: CDLX 7150/ CDLX 7155/ CDLX 7166/ GEN 85049
Our patchy current state of
knowledge of Cyril Scott is mirrored
in the two discs here that proclaim
themselves to be his ‘Complete
Piano Sonatas’. Michael Schäfer’s
CD contains three such works;
Volume Two of Leslie De’Ath’s
survey of Scott’s piano music has
four. The addition is the ‘pre-First’
D major Sonata of 1901, which
Scott withdrew and Percy Grainger
reissued in 1909 as Handelian
Rhapsody, after an editing process
that discarded half of it (De’Ath
plays that version, little though it has
to do with Handel, in Volume 1).
These six CDs contain 97 different
pieces or movements, not half Scott’s
total piano output. De’Ath knows an
impressive amount about Scott, as his erudite and informative liner notes
attest, and he clearly loves the music
to distraction. But in the sonatas,
where direct comparison is possible, I
have to admit to preferring Schäfer’s
more focused approach.
The music ranges from the
frankly trivial or salony (rather a
lot of De’Ath’s Volume 1) to the
imposing (the Sonatas, the huge
fugue that concludes the Deuxième
Suite) and powerfully evocative
(eg the dreamlike Sphinx, offered by
both pianists). But the idiom, with
its hothouse blend of Scriabinesque
chromaticism with Debussyian
impressionism, ‘Australian’
(as Grainger insisted) metrical
freedoms, and ‘Frankfurt Gang’
added-note chord-sequences striding
up and down the hill, rank on rank,
isn’t easy to digest in bulk. Scott
chastened his language considerably,
later, but there’s not much late
work here (Schäfer plays a delicious
Victorian Waltz he wrote aged 83).
De’Ath, whose instincts are to
privilege each chord, doesn’t make
digestion easier, and it’s possible to
wonder if his tempos aren’t generally
too laboured. Schäfer has a cleaner
sound and is much more dynamic
and forward-thrusting, making his
performance of the compact and
purposeful Second Sonata maybe
the most thrilling thing on all these
discs. That work (championed
by Gieseking, no less) dates from
the mid-1930s, evidently one of
Scott’s strongest periods: so does
the excellent two-piano Theme
and Variations. Partnered here by
Anya Aexeyev on disc 1 of Volume
3, De’Ath seems sharper in attack,
and some of the best playing (and
best work) is four-handed, including
some delightful and unexpected
Bach arrangements.
But the best pianism of all is
the composer’s, represented by
the valuable crop of ‘historical
recordings’ offered in Volume 1.
As a player Scott is almost De’Ath’s
opposite: quick, light of touch,
indifferent as only a composer can
be to the seductions of momentary
sensation, but deft and incisive in
characterisation. His Rainbow Trout
easily trumps Schäfer’s, and I’ve
never heard Danse nègre taken at
such headlong pace. This is reason
enough to buy Dutton’s Volume 1;
and you don’t have to be an English
music fanatic to decide you probably
need the other volumes, and Schäfer
too, if only to pick and choose the
plums at leisure. Calum MacDonald