By the River
Works for Piano Solo
Eliza Garth (piano)
rec. 2023/2024, Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, USA
Centaur CRC4170 [60]
The common denominator for these compositions is that they are inspired by, or at least based on, hymn tunes. Whether the composers were/are believers is beyond my power to judge, but at least Brahms was deeply religious – albeit not conventionally. My parents were not organized Christians, and my father regarded himself as atheist, but they often visited revivalist meetings in the 1950s when there was a new wave of religiosity in Sweden – not for the message, but they liked the melodies of the hymns. Since I sometimes accompanied them, I too was steeped in the traditions. Moreover, my favourite aunt and her husband were Pentecostalists, and their songs – I wouldn’t call them hymns – were easy to learn and hum. Thus, I was immersed in this repertoire even more. Generally speaking, I also think that much of the best music is church music. Through the music history, from the Gregorian chant via Palestrina and his contemporaries, Bach and Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Verdi, Fauré to present day’s Arvo Pärt have enriched the existence for millions. The present collection of pieces from, mainly, the last few years, is further proof of the impact religious melodies still exerts on mankind.
Honestly, however, I feel that the religious values are subordinated to the technical treatments of the themes, even though, naturally, it is fascinating to indulge in the skills of the composers, and in the extension, the pianist. Eliza Garth has long been a leading authority in contemporary music, and has close connections with several of those represented here.
David Froom, who passed away from cancer almost four years ago, based his variations on the hymn tune “Holy Manna”, which is one of the oldest American folk hymns, first published in 1829. The theme is first presented simply and straight, and then varied in various tempi, rhythms and dynamics. The theme is always present but cleverly disguised. Basically, it is a lyrical composition, played with great sensitivity “by the musician who knew him best” as the liner notes say somewhat cryptically. They were married and have two grown-up children.
Almost as old is the tune “Beach Spring”, published in 1844, which was used by Scott Wheeler as model for his identically named composition from 2022. It was Eliza Garth who suggested the melody and also commissioned the work. It is a fascinating and inventive journey through a many-facetted landscape. Substantial parts of the 10-minute-long work are distinctly jazzy, and the liner notes mention as diverse models as Keith Jarrett and Charles Ives. Like Froom’s “Holy Manna” this is a work to return to.
I must admit that I cannot express similar enthusiasm for Sheree Clement’s “Teeth”, written in 2021. It is a collage of noises: piano (also played with bow inside the instrument), electronic sounds, “vocals”: (including grunts, hums, mutterings, sometimes understandable words), diverse mechanical bangs and fragments of the hymn “Open my eyes”. I hesitate to call this music, and if there is a compositional structure behind this, it eludes me. There is, according to the notes, a tragic story involved: a musician becoming totally isolated through the Covid-19 pandemic.
It is a relief – for the ears at least – to turn to another world and another time: the end of the 19th century and Johannes Brahms’ Germany. His long-time friend Clara Schumann had died, and Brahms felt that his own life was nearing its end. His grief makes him resume his composing one last time, and the result is eleven choral preludes for organ, six of which Busoni transcribed for piano a few years later. The last of them has the symbolic text “O Welt, ich muss dich lassen” (O World, I must leave you). They are slow, gloomy, restrained, and Eliza Garth plays them with respectfulness and compassion.
The contrast between Brahms’ otherworldliness and Frederick Tillis’ strongly jazz influenced “Spiritual Fantasy No. 4” is striking. It was composed as early as 1981, and thus belongs to another epoque altogether. The spiritual that constitutes the basis for this particular fantasy is the well-known “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen”, but there are others as well. Tillis was a versatile artist: poet, jazz saxophonist with classical training, and classical composer. Whether his interest in Bach’s music spills over to this particular work is hard to say, but the music is loaded with dynamite, and requires an interpreter with steely fingers and virtuoso technique – something Eliza Garth delivers with aplomb. It makes a rousing finale to a varied and stimulating programme, where not everything may be to everybody’s taste.
Göran Forsling
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Contents
David Froom (1951-2022)
Variations on an Early American Hymn Tune (2019)
Scott Wheeler (b. 1952)
Beach Spring (2022)
Sheree Clement (b. 1955)
Teeth (2021), spoken part: Eliza Garth
Johannes Brahms (1833-897)
Six Chorale Preludes, Op.122 (1896), transcription for piano by Ferruccio Busoni
Herzlich tut mich erfreuen (My heart is filled)
Schmycke dich, o liebe Seele (Deck yourself, O dear soul)
Es ist ein Ros’ entsprungen (A rose breaks into bloom)
Herzlich tut mich verlangen (My inmost heart is yearning)
Herzlich tut mich verlangen (second setting)
O Welt, ich muss dich lassen (O World, I must leave you)
Frederick Tillis (1930-2020)
Spiritual Fantasy No.4 (1981)
