Ronald Center (1913-1973)
Instrumental and Chamber Music Volume Three
Tamás Fejes (violin)
Balázs Renczés (cello)
Christopher Guild (piano)
rec. 2019/23
Toccata Classics TOCC0723 [78]
I am beholden to pianist Christopher Guild for his outstanding liner notes. I have used them at every turn in evaluating this exceptional disc of Scottish composer Ronald Center’s instrumental and chamber music. For biographical details, please see my review of Volume One. And note that the dating of Center’s scores is fraught. Only two tracks here, the Phantasy and the Melodie, have a definite date. It is not possible to fit the remainder into any chronological order.
In 1945, Center and his wife were living in Huntly, in Aberdeenshire. Two Polish soldiers, violinist Witold Nowacki and cellist Kazimierz Łydziński, were stationed nearby. They became friends. Guild suggests that the men may have been “the stimulus for Center to compose much of his string chamber music; one can easily come to this conclusion on hearing, say, the three string quartets and, indeed, the Sonata for Violin and Piano, since it is surely no coincidence that these works have a strong eastern-European musical strain running through them.”
I began my exploration with the diminutive Little Canon and Duet for violin and cello. This was – not beyond doubt – written for Messrs. Nowacki and Łydziński. Nothing too difficult here, simply good humour and decent, at times wayward, counterpoint.
The most substantial work on the disc is the Sonata for violin and piano. It is easy to play spot-the-influence here. The “fleet-footed, scherzando character” may bring Benjamin Britten to mind, and then there is the “diabolical side” of Ferruccio Busoni. The liner notes also mention echoes of Karol Szymanowski and Béla Bartók. The opening Allegro holds the scherzando and melancholic mood in equilibrium. I am not sure I agree that the Andante con espressione is a “searching pastorale”; there is little here that is “Cow and Gate”, more a sullen rumination. The Allegro feroce finale is a tarantella that pounds away from start to finish. It is aggressive, hostile and jagged, with little relief. The entire Sonata gets a brilliant performance by Tamás Fejes and Christoper Guild. This powerful, accomplished composition deserves its place in the repertoire.
The title of the first piece in Rumba (Giglot) and Toccata bears a little examination. I understand that giglot can be construed as “a giddy, playful girl”, but is less flattering in its archaic meaning of “a lascivious woman”. Center has created a delightful mood picture with his Latin-infused Rumba. The Toccata is a mad scramble of notes, a moto perpetuo, described as a “warm-up for the fingers!”
The short suite From Childhood was devised for some of Center’s pupils. Despite the titles o– Merry-go-round, The Bogeyman, Doll’s Waltz and March – there is nothing infantile about these miniatures. All can be described as charming and beautifully wrought, and there are technical difficulties for young players.
The Burlesca, another toccata, combines several diverse sections into a satisfying whole. Opening slowly, it soon becomes a playground skipping song, then a Scottish reel, followed by a few thoughtful moments, an aggressive loping dance tune and a long glissando. It is all over in just under four minutes. Bartók is the inspiration here.
The three-movement Suite for piano lasts over thirteen minutes. The opening Allegro molto is an alternative version of the first movement of Center’s Piano Sonata, with an acerbic sound and a little relaxation in the middle section. The Andante (Children at Play) opens with an impression of a music box being wound up. The children’s imagination goes in various directions: bagpipes, a march and a reel, before the toy winds down and stops. The entire movement is a lovely conceit, involved and pianistically tricky. The Allegro vivace finale is concise. This brittle music displays a wild rhythmic intensity with constantly changing time signatures. The bagpipe drones are heard again.
The Phantasy is billed as one of Center’s earliest works, dating from around 1940. The notes explain that a valuable hermeneutic for listening is to see it as “stream of consciousness” with ideas emerging unbidden and not subject to conventional development of two or three subjects. The sound world is typically more romantic than other works on this CD. It is hard to pin down but is certainly nearer to Liszt than to Bartók!
The most chilled-out number is Melodie, described as an “album-leaf”. It sounds like a transcription of a song for baritone. The tune is initially heard on the left hand, with a serene accompaniment. Nothing complicated in these pages, just a beautiful melody with the occasional bit of chromatic seasoning.
If there ever was a collection of short pieces that ought to be in every Scottish pianist’s gift, it is the remarkable Seven Preludes. Christopher Guild does not know if they were meant to be played as a group. They were collected in a single manuscript, but “Seven” was added later. To me, this works as a collection: the pieces are too short to be excerpted. Various allusions are heard, including a reel, a bardic lament, jazz infused scales, a Schubert Ländler, a waltz and a folksong. The finale is another jig with nods once again to Bartók.
Three close-written pages of the booklet are given over to the three Preludes and Fugues. Here is the main takeaway: the pieces are very chromatic and rarely seem to stay in their assigned key. I listened like to any preludes and fugues, just allowing the technical development to wash over me. There is time enough in the next world (hopefully!) to unravel expositions, countersubjects, episodes and stretto. But there is a consistency here, satisfying and often surprisingly moving.
Prelude, Aria, and Finale closes the programme. The Prelude “starts in the manner of a reel, a furious moto perpetuo with loud, punchy chords and bitonal, toccata-like passages, and tumultuous scales such as those which bring it to a cataclysmic close”. That is a challenge to the pianist. The Aria, terribly sad and directionless, acts as a satisfactory balance to the pyrotechnics of the surrounding movements. The Finale includes a strange opening passage and later some conversational counterpoint, surrounded by fast-moving passages. It ends with a tarantella, all in the space of just over three minutes.
This release concludes Christopher Guild’s imaginative survey of Ronald Center’s complete piano music. I have already commended the documentation. The recording is also outstanding. Clearly, the performance is totally engaged and utterly sympathetic.
For all enthusiasts of Scottish classical music, this is an absolute must. One hopes that Toccata Records will explore beyond the piano and chamber works, to the Symphony, the Sinfonietta and the tone-poem The Coming of Cuchulainn.
John France
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Contents
Sonata for Violin and Piano
Little Canon for violin and cello
Duet for violin and cello
Giglot and Toccata (publ. 1988)
From Childhood (publ. 1988)
Burlesca
Suite for Piano
Phantasy (1940)
Melodie (1942)
Seven Preludes
Prelude and Fugue in E
Prelude and Fugue in G Sharp
Prelude and Fugue in A
Prelude, Aria and Finale
Recording details
26 June 2019 (Violin Sonata), 1 July 2019 (Little Canon, Duet)
RSNO Concert Hall, Glasgow, UK
2 April 2023 (Giglot, Phantasy)
Wyastone Hall, Wyastone Leys, Monmouthshire, UK
4 January 2021 (others)
Old Granary Studio, Toft Monks, Beccles, Suffolk, UK
