Joanna MacGregor (piano)
Wigmore Hall, 11th November 2019
Birds, Grounds, Chaconnes
- Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) – Le rappel des oiseaux
- François Couperin (1668-1733) – Les fauvétes plaintives
- Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) – Le merle noir
- Jean-Philippe Rameau – La poule
- Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) – On an Overgrown Path X. The barn owl has not flown away
- Sir Harrison Birtwistle (b. 1934) – Oockooing Bird
- Hossein Alizâdeh (b. 1951) – Call of the Birds
- Henry Purcell (c.1659-1695) – Ground in C minor ZD221
- Philip Glass (b. 1937) – Koyaanisqatsi Prophecies
- William Byrd (c.1540-1623) – My Ladye Nevells Booke First Pavane
- Philip Glass – Trilogy Sonata Knee Play No. 4 from Einstein on the Beach
- Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) – Ciacona in F minor
I am guessing Johanna McGregor started out interrogating her extensive repertoire for an hour of solo piano pieces connected with birds, then thought, sod it, why doubt I chuck some Purcell, Byrd and Glass into the mix and end with Pachelbel. Good call. This genuinely was a delight from start to finish. Not a single wasted note, even from the composer, Hossein Alizadeh, whose work I had never heard.
Whilst Ms MacGregor dips into the Romantic repertoire, notably Chopin, it is the C20 and Baroque (especially Bach) for which she is most well known. Suits me. If pushed I would say I preferred the Couperin to the Rameau when it came to the battle, though both are so elegant there was no hint of aggression, between the French Baroque masters. The Rameau comes from a suite and is comprised of two related halves. Same structure in the Couperin, which represents warblers, and the second Rameau, hens pecking away in a courtyard that Respighi went on to pinch.
It was the Messaien that enthralled me. This is the second piece from Le Petite esquisses d’oiseaux, and represents the humble blackbird. Bright chords offset its calls and movement in four changing sections. I need a recording. Let’s see what Santa brings.
The cry of the owl is a warning in Czech and other folklore and here its scary screech here precedes a fading chorale, all beefed up with Janacek’s arpeggios and ostinatos.
The Birtwistle was written when he was just 15 and shows he was already heading off into his own world, albeit here still framed in jolly Satie-ism, and maybe, though he had never heard him, Messaien himself.
Iranian musician Hossein Alizâdeh wrote his Call of the Birds for a lute-like instrument, the shurangiz, and a duduk, similar to an oboe. Ms MacGregor has created her own arrangement of its rhythmic drive. I liked it, like a Middle Eastern jig.
Purcell’s C minor ground is an exemplar of the form, the rising arpeggio of the bass line, seven bars long, in the left hand with a “catch” tune suject to variation in the right, before the bass dies. All over in three minutes like a perfect pop song. The Byrd, a Pavane from the divine Lady Nevell’s Book, one of the first written keyboard collections, is a similar structure, a ground with harmony on top, but way more ornamented. He really was a clever fellow and with a surname to match the theme of the first half.
The first Glass is the typical cycle with in a cycle oscillation of PG’s piano work but was originally scored for chamber ensemble and chorus, coming at the end of the art film by Godfrey Reggio that was a big mainstream hit. The five knee plays connect sections of Glass’s opera Einstein on the Beach, at five hours long, it needs some breaks, and originally was performed by violin and voices, (where it works better).
The gentle Pachelbel chaconne, a stepwise structure subject to 21 variations, was followed with a more upbeat encore, a Handel Passacaglia, that fitted the bill.
One hour, one instrument. So much to enjoy.
At Home He Feels Like A Tourist 