Today I completed a project that has kept me occupied for many weeks, Erik Chisholm's Straloch Suite, written in 1933.
Erik Chisholm (1904-1965) was a Scottish composer, pianist, organist and conductor. His keen interest in, and treatment of, Scottish Piobaireachd (bagpipe) music earned him the nickname "MacBartók". His often startling and uncompromising modernity was little understood during his lifetime, and after his death his music fell into such neglect that he was dubbed "Scotland's forgotten composer". A prolific composer, much of his music remains unpublished and/or in manuscript, though recently a number of piano works were typeset and made available by the Scottish Music Centre. That his piano works are known at all is almost entirely thanks to the tireless advocacy of Scottish pianist Murray McLachlan, who recorded most of them for the Naxos label. Otherwise his music seems to be seldom played.
Chisholm was an important and interesting figure in the Scottish musical world of the 1930's. He corresponded with many composers, he twice personally invited Bartók to perform in Glasgow, he played the British premiere of Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto, he was a close friend of Kaikhosru Sorabji (who had a bit of a crush on him despite being gay while Chisholm was straight and married, and who kindled in Chisholm a deep interest in Hindustani music), he was an authority on Czech music and wrote a reference work on the operas of Leos Janacek, he founded a symphony orchestra in Singapore, and went to become the head of piano department of Cape Town University, South Africa.
The Straloch Suite is based on one of the earliest Scottish lute manuscripts. This performance of all 5 movements may well be a premiere, as Murray McLachlan recorded only the first three movements which he was given by the composer's widow Morag. The piano writing is muscular, with unusual harmonies, intervals and leaps. Parts of the third and fifth movements were very challenging for me and are (despite much cutting and pasting between takes) not as clean as I'd like them to be. But hopefully, all in good spirit.
Chris Breemer, piano
buymeacoffee.c...
00:17 I. Slow - Allegro con energico
04:08 II. Allegro con energico
11:36 III. Mesuré
16:03 IV. Allegretto grazioso
21:48 V. Allegro con spirito
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Recording date: Monday November 13, 2023
Piano: Kawai Novus NV10S
Setting: SK-EX Rendering
Postprocessing: Bass boost, Treble Boost, Concert Hall Light reverb
On the channel of Le Sheet Music Boi ( / @lesheetmusicboi )
there is a version of this performance with sheet music rather than video footage • Erik Chisholm - Stralo...
30 сен 2024
