Danza Gaya – Music for Two Pianos
Simon Callaghan, Hiroaki Takenouchi
rec. 2023, Wyastone Leys, Monmouth UK
Lyrita SRCD433 [74]

What is there not to enjoy about this disc! Piano Duettists Simon Callaghan and Hiroaki Takenouchi have put together a programme bubbling with witty and attractive music, which they play with insouciant technical brilliance and ideal musical sensitivity.

Callaghan and Takenouchi are not just considerable solo pianists individually, they have built an impressive discography together as duettists and this is shown here with the easy precision of their ensemble playing and a complete alignment in their musical styles. In the past, I have enjoyed their performances of larger-scale original scores as well as orchestral transcriptions – two discs of Delius’ orchestral works on Somm spring warmly to mind. But here, in the main, they are playing skilfully crafted miniatures to which they apply exactly the same levels of performing brilliance and insight.

The music is shared between three composers. Of them, Madeleine Dring is given the lion’s share, with roughly 43 minutes of her music on this 73:39 minute disc. Dorothy Howell and Pamela Harrison split the remaining half hour fairly equally. Leah Broad provides a detailed and informative liner note which outlines not just the music offered here, but crucially focuses on the personalities of the composers. Broad characterises Dring’s music as “the most theatrical” and even on a first listen this is clear. Dring was something of a prodigy – she gained a violin scholarship to London Royal College of Music aged just nine and made her broadcast debut on BBC Radio at sixteen performing one of her own works. Indeed, throughout her life she was a performer, composer, singer and actress. All three composers – either out of desire or necessity performed as well as composed and all three were disappointed by the relative neglect of their work during their lifetimes. Listening to this disc, I suspect this neglect has more to do with a perception that the music is of either a ‘lighter’ or pedagogical nature. In the brave new world of post-war Modern Music that would instantly bar it from the pantheon of the greats. This is exactly the same musical bias that blighted many other composers – British and elsewhere – and indeed there remains a legacy to this day whereby supremely well-crafted and attractive music is treated with a degree of knee-jerk suspicion.

But just how appealing this music undoubtedly is instantly apparent from the very first track – which gives the disc its name – Danza Gaya. Written in 1964, this has more than a nod towards Arthur Benjamin’s Jamaican Rumba – you can imagine BBC programmers feeling this would be more at home on The Light Programme rather than ‘serious’ Third Programme. Of course, the truth is, it is very hard to compose – and play – something as nominally ‘simple’ as this work this well. Callaghan and Takenouchi choose an ideally infectious and bright tempo (Dring wrote on the score; “I haven’t put a metronome marking – always enough to bring me out in a rash”) which again is not as easy to ‘hit’ as might be assumed. There is a wind quintet version of the piece previously released on ASV’s “White Line” label by the Raphaele Wind Sextet that is markedly slower and actually rather bland compared to Callaghan and Takenouchi’s sparkle and fizz. Although written as individual pieces, the first four tracks make for an attractively contrasted ‘suite’ of dances, which occasionally had me in mind of the urbane wit and clarity of Richard Rodney Bennett’s piano writing. All of which underlines the sophistication not just of the music, but also the playing and Lyrita’s discreetly fine engineering. The two pianos are clearly placed to the left and right of the soundstage, but in a way that allows musical integration as well as instrumental definition.

The most substantial work on the disc is the 15:30 Sonata for two pianos from 1951 which according to Broad was “very poorly received”. That reception is a sad indictment of the critical community rather than any specific failings in musical terms. One suspects that Dring was by then compartmentalised as ‘just’ a composer of light or theatre scores. So the offering of an abstract/serious sonata smacked of musical temerity by her in the eyes of some musical movers and shakers. For sure this is not a searchingly modern work and in truth by trying to be serious it loses some of the energy and appeal of the other works offered here, but it remains an attractive and well written work. The opening Drammatico e maestoso at 8:19 is the longest single track on the entire disc and is a powerful movement, although the lyrical melancholy of the central Élégie: Sotto voce lingers longer in the memory. This inhabits that emotional landscape of bittersweet introspection that is rather moving in its elusive expressiveness – predictably well captured by the players here. The closing Allegro vigoroso has a jazz inflected neoclassical objective energy that also makes nods towards contemporary French composers, making Dring’s admiration for Milhaud’s two piano Scaramouche all the more understandable.

Dring’s contribution to the disc continues with a pair of suites of her teaching works. She was not the first composer to be inspired by the challenge of writing musically rewarding works within a technically limited framework. These are Three for Two and Four Duets. The movement titles give an idea of the intended performers; Hobby-Horse and Little Waltz just two examples. These are miniatures in the truest sense – the longest of the seven just 1:05, but every-one is a little gem. The great skill is to capture a mood in the minimum time with the minimum resource and Dring succeeds in this admirably. Great credit to the performers too for playing this music unfussily straight, but with a clarity and articulation that serves the music perfectly. The liner mentions that the publishing arm of Nimbus has created new (first?) editions of several Dring works including the Four Duets, all of which I can imagine proving popular with pianists of all ages and skill. Dring’s Tarantelle and Three Fantastic Variations on Lilliburlero were written as concert-hall display pieces and again fit that remit perfectly. Both works would be ideal encores at the very least, as they burst with good humour and that slightly subversive use of harmony that keeps audience and players guessing. The Tarantelle seems to passingly pre-echo the famous Devil’s Dance by John Williams in his Witches of Eastwick film score. Both this and the Fantastic Variations sound as though they must be great fun to play. The first variation of the latter formed part of the excellent In England recital by David Nettle and Richard Markham that was released by Carlton back in 1993. That collection remains genuinely excellent and well worth seeking out in the usual online marketplaces. But nice to have all three of the variations here, with the central Andante another of those bluesy swaying pieces that is just charming. The closing Allegro – brightly, is the longest of the three at 4:21 but again notable for how Dring integrates the original theme so skilfully and wittily into the writing. This makes an exceptional conclusion to the recital in every respect.

Of the three composers on display here, the name of Dorothy Howell is slowly becoming more familiar. A Dutton disc of chamber music from 2003 followed by the Piano Concerto (two versions) and the tone poem Lamia which made her name as a young student have followed as well a new disc (as of March 2024) devoted wholly to her orchestral music. The high regard in which Howell was initially held rather belies narratives of marginalisation on account of her gender. Much the same as Dring, Howell was a skilled performer as well as composer, but the idiom in which she composed was deemed out of date almost as soon as it was written. Yet the evidence presented here – again as with Dring – reveals a composer with a distinct voice, a polished technical craft and the ability to write music immediately engaging for the listener. The two Recuerdos Preciosos (Precious Memories) were inspired by a trip to Barcelona and are dated to around 1934. On a postcard showing Barcelona Cathedral Howell wrote “Recuerdos Preciosos No.1” whilst she said that the second shorter “memory” was of the amusement park on the summit of the Tibidabo. Certainly, they make for a very attractive and contrasting pair of pieces that run in total for around 10:00. There is an impressionistic quality to these pieces that would make the innocent ear suspect a French rather than British origin. Again Callaghan and Takenouchi have the perfect measure of the music with ideal clarity of touch and articulation of rhythms that allow a sense of ease and expressive freedom. The Mazurka is slightly later and is one of Howell’s teaching works. As such it is not as individual as the preceding pair, but again it must be rewarding for students to be presented with music that is technically achievable while requiring ‘proper’ musicianship. The early 1920 Spindrift is a virtuoso display piece, which Howell often performed and broadcast in its solo piano version. The performance here – again aided by the unfussy excellence of the Lyrita production – sounds ideal and underlines the absurdity of such music not being better known.

The name of Pamela Harrison was least familiar to me. Her 14:13 Dance Little Lady suite was originally written for piano 4 hands but is played on two pianos in this performance. Harrison was again a performer composer teacher and this as the miniature scale of the six movements suggests is another pedagogical work but again a piece of genuine appeal. The variety of tempi and styles across the movements makes for satisfying variety and an attractive whole. As the only work offered here, it is harder to gauge Harrison’s range on the basis of this single, deliberately slight work. Elsewhere, her string orchestra Suite for Timothy appeared on volume five of the Naxos English String Miniatures series in a slightly under-rehearsed sounding version from Gavin Sutherland and the Royal Ballet Sinfonia. More telling as to Harrison’s compositional stature is her impressive Viola Sonata from the mid 1940’s. Played with authority by Helen Callus on ASV as part of her “A Portrait of the Viola” recital, it is a disc worth hearing for its entire programme, in which the Harrison sonata is a worthy part. There is an interesting 2023 survey of her chamber music on Resonus that I have not heard.

So as will be clear this is a very attractive recital from which all involved parties; composers, performers and production team all emerge with their individual statures further enhanced. None of this music has any pretensions at ‘greatness’ but it all achieves its intended goals with great technical skill and musical appeal. As I wrote at the beginning of this review; what’s not to enjoy!

Nick Barnard

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Madeleine Dring (1923-77)
Danza Gaya (1964)
Valse française (pub. 1980)
Italian Dance (1960)
Caribbean Dance (1959)
Dorothy Howell (1898-1992)
Recuerdos Preciosos I & II (1934?)
Pamela Harrison (1915-90)
Dance Little Lady (1976)
Madeleine Dring
Sonata for Two Pianos (1951)
Three for Two (pub. 1970)
Tarantelle (1948)
Four Duets (pub. 1964)
Dorothy Howell
Mazurka (1937?)
Spindrift (1920)
Madeleine Dring
Three Fantastic Variations on ‘Lilliburlero’ (1948)