British Piano Quintets (CD Review)

by Ryan Ross

Percy Godfrey: Piano Quintet, Op. 16; Ivor Hodgson: Piano Quintet; Richard Walthew: “Phantasy” Quintet; John McCabe: Sam Variations. I Muscanti; Peter Donohoe, piano. SOMM Recordings SOMMCD 0707

 

Exploring little-known repertoire is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s fun to discover new favorites and see what has been unfairly neglected. On the other hand, if you’re honest with yourself, you’re forced to admit that many works probably merit relative obscurity. Many others stand little chance of escaping it, merit notwithstanding. And you can’t tell which is which until you roll up your sleeves and do the hard work of lifting each proverbial stone, one at a time, to see what’s under it. I’d be lying if I said that doing so doesn’t feel tedious at times. As always when I review such repertoire, I listened to each work on this recording more times than I probably would have if I weren’t reviewing it. The majority are quite nice, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I shed my mortal coil without ever having revisited them. There is just so much to discover, and so many legitimate favorites to return to. How much time do we have for this stuff anyway?

I’ll start with the one I enjoyed most: Percy Godfrey’s Piano Quintet, Op. 16. Robert Matthew-Walker’s liner notes tell us that today this composer’s music is “almost entirely forgotten.” No kidding. I don’t even see a Wikipedia article for him. British music is one of my musicological concentrations, and I don’t remember ever having heard of Godfrey until encountering this recording. Am I going to become a Godfrey crusader after getting to know his piano quintet? No, but it is well crafted and has some fetching thematic ideas. I particularly like the scherzo and finale. We have some very pleasant music here that is highly unlikely to change your life. I don’t know what else to say about it.

Richard Walthew, however, does have a Wikipedia article to his name. It shows that he was an exact contemporary of Ralph Vaughan Williams and likewise produced a “Phantasy” Quintet dedicated to chamber music aficionado William Wilson Cobbett. Beyond that, the similarities diminish. Walthew’s quintet is scored for piano and strings rather than just strings, and it can boast nothing like RVW’s unmistakable voice. Instead, we have a one-movement work showing a hefty debt to Brahms. There are some lovely passages, no question, but nothing distinguished.

Of the remaining two quintets, I liked one a little and the other not at all. Ivor Hodgson’s Piano Quintet is in four movements, each of which is named after a different Derbyshire location (three inns and a more general setting). The liner note descriptions of these settings do help the listener enjoy (or at least appreciate) the music more. But even without them, the mixture of postwar modernism and popular/humorous elements is mildly engaging. I make special mention of the non-inn movement, “Moonlight over Mount Famine,” a beautiful passage that may just increase my likelihood of revisiting this disc.

 

I’m afraid I have nothing enthusiastic to say about John McCabe’s Sam Variations. The tune upon which it is based, a theme song by the same composer for a short-lived 1970s television program, is the closest I have heard McCabe come to writing something catchy. It’s a pity we don’t really encounter it more fully (to echo the liner notes) in these variations, which revert to his usual tendency toward the prickly and angular. But I know now for a fact that there are John McCabe Fans out there, and they should probably buy this recording for these variations alone.

The problem is, the other composers represented here don’t seem to have similar followings. Moreover, I am not certain that the music offered will help create them. So, I don’t know who else to recommend this recording to. British music fans? Chamber music fans? The general classical music lover? Sure. I guess I’ll just advise that you listen before you invest. After all, there are lots of stones to look under.