Holiday Diary; Helix; Three Books of Bagatelles etc
Martin Jones (piano)
Resonus RES10331 77:32 mins
One of the most international-looking of British composers, Elisabeth Lutyens (1906-83) studied in Paris but came to be influenced most of all by the serialism of the Second Viennese School. That leaning is audible even in such a relatively early piece as the Berceuse, given a warmly enigmatic performance by Martin Jones in the third and final volume of his survey of Lutyens’s piano works on Resonus Classics.
Famously hard-living and combative, Lutyens coined the term ‘cowpat music’ as a derogatory reference to the English pastoralists, but her own styles could range quite widely. As a reminder that Hindemith was the fountainhead of many composers during this period, there’s also the stately Overture (a third pressing, perhaps, of the Hindemithian oil) with which this album opens. Another early piece, the Dance Souvenance, features a haunting tune that points towards Lutyens’s film scores.
The childlike simplicity of the Holiday Diary comes complete with a now slightly dated-sounding narration (spoken, I think, by Jones himself) – the small-scale theatricals recalling Milhaud’s occasional mix of piano and narration. Written long after Lutyens’s breakdown in the late 1940s, there are such mature scores as Helix for piano duo (Jones presumably duetting with himself, but again no indication is given) and the three books of Bagatelles, wide-ranging in their emotions yet all brief, one lasting only half a minute. All are world-premiere recordings, and if that implies at least a little barrel scraping, everything is meticulously played.