In the discreetly imposing venue of St. Nicholas Priory, Exeter, the city’s oldest building, pianist Alex Wilson gave the last of his three recitals exploring European songs and folk traditions at Christmas. A wide range of music was offered from various countries written over several centuries. The concert took place on 6 January 2023, the day on which Epiphany is celebrated, and, in recognition of this, some of the featured works commemorated the Magi’s visit to the infant Jesus.
The evening’s music making began with an agile, crisply articulated account of Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in C major K513. Marked ‘Pastorale’ by the composer, this sonata, which dates from around 1756, has a theme derived from a popular Neapolitan Christmas song, ‘you came down from the stars’. With evocations of dancing and shepherds playing their bagpipes and flutes, this was an elegant and beguiling opening item.
There followed a stirring performance of ‘Adeste Fideles’, the fourth of Liszt’s Weihnachtsbaum, a suite of pieces mostly based on Christmas carols. The piece’s tenacious, rhythmic quality depicts the three Holy Kings’ march across the desert.
A couple of brief works based on English tunes came next. Arnold Bax’s ‘O Dame Get Up and Bake Your Pies’ was a set of six resourceful, brief variations on a northern English carol. In Sussex Mummers’ Christmas Carol, Percy Grainger’s arrangement was characteristically opulent and nostalgic.
The first series of Bartók’s Romanian Christmas Carols consists of ten short, strongly contrasted tunes, based not on carols but on the folk melodies of Romanian ‘Colinde’, customs associated with the pagan winter solstice. Alex Wilson found lyricism as well as rhythmic drive in these enjoyable miniatures.
‘Cortège des Mages’ is the second of Sergei Lyapunov’s Fêtes de Noël. Swift and vigorous, it evokes the procession of the Magi and is based on a traditional Arabic theme. The build up to the score’s imposing chordal climax was ideally paced.
At the recital’s heart was the third performance of a work written by Sadie Harrison especially for this series of concerts, Shchedryk – The Little Swallow, based on a traditional Ukrainian folk chant, which tells of a swallow flying into a household to sing of the wealth and happiness that will come with the spring. The composer wanted to write a piece that reflected the devastating Russo-Ukrainian war that began in February 2022, while also looking towards a brighter future, mirroring the darkness and light inherent in the Christmas story. Accordingly, the music is, by turns, sombre and airy and the swallow appears throughout as a message of hope to the families of Ukraine and to the world. In a sensitive and searching interpretation, Alex Wilson never lost sight of the innocence and simplicity of the original theme, while deftly conveying this eloquent score’s darker shades of meaning.
Carl Nielsen’s A Dream about ‘Silent Night’ from the 1905 publication, ‘Yule: Moods and Pictures for the Piano by Danish Composers’ was a deftly written fantasy on the popular carol which soon moves away from the original melody to explore dream-like musical territory. The music’s capricious, ethereal elements were skillfully highlighted.
Austrian composer Josef Matthias Hauer’s Zwölftonspiel: Weinachten 1946 was a deeply felt, often ruminative and occasionally playful set of variations on a twelve-tone row that encompassed various contrasting moods, ending in gentle radiance.
In Pastourelles, French composer Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht depicts the whole Christmas story in a suite of seven movements, subtly re-working several well-known traditional French and German Christmas song tunes. Satisfying and substantial, with a resonant and assured final piece, ‘Les Bergers à la Crèche’, this 1949 suite brought the programme to a thoughtful, deeply felt conclusion.
This atmospheric, ambiently lit recital comprised a judicious selection of rarely heard, worthwhile piano pieces. Though each of the works had simple melodies at their centre, many of them were presented in colourful and sophisticated treatments and some, notably Sadie Harrison’s new piece, resonated far beyond their modest timespan. Penetrating and understated, Alex Wilson’s carefully curated programme ably conveyed the warmth and optimism at the start of a new year.
Paul Conway - Musical Opinion April-June 2023
The evening’s music making began with an agile, crisply articulated account of Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata in C major K513. Marked ‘Pastorale’ by the composer, this sonata, which dates from around 1756, has a theme derived from a popular Neapolitan Christmas song, ‘you came down from the stars’. With evocations of dancing and shepherds playing their bagpipes and flutes, this was an elegant and beguiling opening item.
There followed a stirring performance of ‘Adeste Fideles’, the fourth of Liszt’s Weihnachtsbaum, a suite of pieces mostly based on Christmas carols. The piece’s tenacious, rhythmic quality depicts the three Holy Kings’ march across the desert.
A couple of brief works based on English tunes came next. Arnold Bax’s ‘O Dame Get Up and Bake Your Pies’ was a set of six resourceful, brief variations on a northern English carol. In Sussex Mummers’ Christmas Carol, Percy Grainger’s arrangement was characteristically opulent and nostalgic.
The first series of Bartók’s Romanian Christmas Carols consists of ten short, strongly contrasted tunes, based not on carols but on the folk melodies of Romanian ‘Colinde’, customs associated with the pagan winter solstice. Alex Wilson found lyricism as well as rhythmic drive in these enjoyable miniatures.
‘Cortège des Mages’ is the second of Sergei Lyapunov’s Fêtes de Noël. Swift and vigorous, it evokes the procession of the Magi and is based on a traditional Arabic theme. The build up to the score’s imposing chordal climax was ideally paced.
At the recital’s heart was the third performance of a work written by Sadie Harrison especially for this series of concerts, Shchedryk – The Little Swallow, based on a traditional Ukrainian folk chant, which tells of a swallow flying into a household to sing of the wealth and happiness that will come with the spring. The composer wanted to write a piece that reflected the devastating Russo-Ukrainian war that began in February 2022, while also looking towards a brighter future, mirroring the darkness and light inherent in the Christmas story. Accordingly, the music is, by turns, sombre and airy and the swallow appears throughout as a message of hope to the families of Ukraine and to the world. In a sensitive and searching interpretation, Alex Wilson never lost sight of the innocence and simplicity of the original theme, while deftly conveying this eloquent score’s darker shades of meaning.
Carl Nielsen’s A Dream about ‘Silent Night’ from the 1905 publication, ‘Yule: Moods and Pictures for the Piano by Danish Composers’ was a deftly written fantasy on the popular carol which soon moves away from the original melody to explore dream-like musical territory. The music’s capricious, ethereal elements were skillfully highlighted.
Austrian composer Josef Matthias Hauer’s Zwölftonspiel: Weinachten 1946 was a deeply felt, often ruminative and occasionally playful set of variations on a twelve-tone row that encompassed various contrasting moods, ending in gentle radiance.
In Pastourelles, French composer Désiré-Émile Inghelbrecht depicts the whole Christmas story in a suite of seven movements, subtly re-working several well-known traditional French and German Christmas song tunes. Satisfying and substantial, with a resonant and assured final piece, ‘Les Bergers à la Crèche’, this 1949 suite brought the programme to a thoughtful, deeply felt conclusion.
This atmospheric, ambiently lit recital comprised a judicious selection of rarely heard, worthwhile piano pieces. Though each of the works had simple melodies at their centre, many of them were presented in colourful and sophisticated treatments and some, notably Sadie Harrison’s new piece, resonated far beyond their modest timespan. Penetrating and understated, Alex Wilson’s carefully curated programme ably conveyed the warmth and optimism at the start of a new year.
Paul Conway - Musical Opinion April-June 2023
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