Folk Trails
Anya Alexeyev (piano)
rec. 2024, Waterloo, Canada
Toccata Next TOCN0039 [64]
This thoughtfully planned disc begins with Bartók’s great Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs. I generally regard Zoltán Kocsis as the reference for Bartók’s piano music, but I do not have his recording of this work. I only have Peter Frankl’s 1989 ASV recording in a performance generally very much ‘in your face’, already noticeable in the opening phrase of the work, presented with greater attack than Alexeyev’s playing. (She takes 53 seconds more than his 13:04.) Frankl’s efforts are rather undermined by ASV’s recording of this full-blooded performance: the microphone is very close to the piano. I enjoyed the new recording, technically in every way superior to ASV’s. Alexeyev’s slightly more understated performance is very attractive.
There is no competition for most of the remainder of the programme of works from around the world, whose composers were inspired by folk songs. It begins with six of Leonid Desyatnikov’s Songs of Bukovina: 24 Preludes for Piano. He was born in Kharkiv, Ukraine but until the Russian invasion of that country in early 2022 lived in St.Petersburg. He left Russia at that time. The booklet describes all the pieces in the set. They are approachable, and to the untutored ear sound like Bartók’s preceding work. A few example titles: Steppe wind a-blowin, Oh, Petrivochka, a night so short and Oh my sweet vast Canada. (The latter commemorates the hardships endured by Ukrainians who relocated to Canada in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.)
Next up is one of Stanford’s Four Irish Dances, The Leprechaun’s Dance taken from George Petrie’s collection of traditional airs and melodies. Percy Granger arranged this version. Its two tunes – a jig and a hop-jig – are designed to evoke the whimsical nature of leprechauns.
There follows the nine-minute Fantasy on Latvian Folk Songs for piano four hands by George Pelëcis, born in 1947. He is currently a professor at the Latvian Academy of Music. His style is a fusion of older and more contemporary musical influences, ranging from Renaissance to minimalism. The work is straightforwardly melodious. Much of it sounds beguilingly simple; the opening few bars sound like a practice piece but things become more complex as the first of the folk songs expands somewhat. The second song is a dance, and the composer whips it up into quite a whirl. It is an appealing work but on this scant evidence it is difficult to agree with the booklet notes that his style is a “distinct new voice”.
We move to the Vietnamese composer Đặng Hữu Phúc. The piece is the sprightly Spring from his Bunches of Flowers of Vietnam. The notes say that the music is intended to “capture the freshness and vitality of springtime”. There is an imitation of the tính tâu – a two-to-four stringed gourd-instrument of Chinese origin – woven into the fabric of the work; it results in a toccata-like texture at times, generated at the treble of the piano.
Next to Sibelius, and four of his Six Finnish Folksongs, contemporaneous with th e Second Symphony and Violin Concerto. He is not remembered for piano music. There is no piano concerto or similar work in his oeuvre. Had I not known I was listening to Sibelius, I would never have guessed. This is unremarkable and unidiomatic salon music.
On to China and Red Lilies Crimson and Bright, the first of Four Folksongs of Northern Shaanxi by Wang Jianzhong. The five-minute piece is long enough for its composer to blend Chinese musical elements with Western classical techniques. That produces a melodically attractive work. After an initial flourish, the music unfolds into a grandiose “orchestral” statement at the climax, and the melody gradually melts away to close the piece gently. The folk song element really denotes ‘people song’ as used by Communists. The melodies here are derived from revolutionary songs based on native originals.
Marko Tajčević’s Seven Balkan Dances are represented by two excerpts, one derived from an old Macedonian song, another a round dance thought to originate in Albania or Bulgaria. He arranged them when he was fusing western musical techniques with Balkan tradition. This is a pleasant listening experience.
Soghomon Soghomonian gained ordination as a monk in the Armenian Apostolic Church in 1894, whereupon he adopted the name of Komitas He devoted his musical life to ethnomusicology and composition. A search on Amazon for his music reveals liturgical compositions and folk songs. The four-minute traditional song Walking, Shining has been further arranged by Georgy Saradjev. It begins quietly. The pianist picks out the melody, slowly building up to fortissimo repetition which shows off the quality of the lower end of the piano and the excellence of the recording.
And now a first for me, a chance to hear an arrangement of Native-American chants, composed by the Navajo musician Connor Chee. The Navajo Piano uses chants taken from daily life, especially those sung during a healing ritual. This gentle piece – repetitive, minimalist and rather hypnotic – achieves a pleasant but not overdone climax.
The programme ends with the only piece by a female composer. The title of Eleanor Alberga’s Jamaican Medley says it all. The pianist plays a series of traditional Caribbean tunes which vary from quiet musing to jaunty dances.
As usual with Toccata, the presentation is immaculate. The notes in English describe each work, and give brief details about the composers. A section has been devoted to biographical details of the pianist.
Jim Westhead
Contents
Béla Bartók
Fifteen Hungarian Peasant Songs (1914-1918)
Leonid Desyatnikov
Songs of Bukovina No. 1, 3, 4 ,7, 8, 24 from 24 Preludes for Piano (2017)
Charles Villers Stanford (arr. Percy Grainger)
The Leprechaun’s Dance from Four Irish Dances Op.89 (1903)
George Pelëcis
Fantasy on Latvian Folk Songs (2020)*
Đặng Hữu Phúc
Spring from Bunches of Flowers of Vietnam (2009)
Jean Sibelius
Six Finnish Folk Songs (No.1-4) (1902-1903)
Wang Jianzhong
Four folksongs of Northern Shaanxi (No.1) (1971)
Marko Tajčević
Seven Balkan Dances (No.4,7 ) (1926)
Komitas (arr. Georgy Saradjev)
Walking, Shining
Connor Chee
The Navajo Piano (No.9) (2014)
Eleanor Alberga
Jamaican Medley (1983)
*with Leslie De’Ath (piano)
Buying this recording via a link below generates revenue for MWI, which helps the site remain free
