A real tonic, this, and unexpectedly stimulating, too. We know how effective Grainger’s colourful orchestrations can be, but in her excellent introductory booklet-note pianist Penelope Thwaites asserts that ‘the balancing of textures to bring out key melodic strands can often be achieved more clearly in Grainger’s multi-piano versions.’ Well, given the superbly poised and concentrated advocacy on show here, that certainly applies to both the extraordinary ‘music to an imaginary ballet’, The Warriors (which, incidentally, lasts 19'19'' and not 9'19'' as printed) and the irresistible Jutish Melody (more familiar in its orchestral guise as the last movement of the Danish Folk-Music Suite), while the amazing English Dance (the work which prompted Faure to exclaim ‘It’s as if the total population was a-dancing!’) now acquires a very Griegian flavour in some of its gentler episodes.
There are genuine surprises, too: the cocky Widow’s Party March (1905-7) now stands revealed as a close sibling of ‘The Gumsuckers’ March’ from In a Nutshell; the whistled final refrain of The Keel-Row in Barry Peter Ould’s ten-hand realization nicely whets the appetite for his forthcoming reconstruction of Grainger’s first thoughts (dating from 1901 and utilizing a men’s chorus, whistlers and orchestra); and who could resist the poignantly lilting charms of the 1902 Zanzibar Boat Song (originally inspired by the Kipling poem ‘Salsette Boat Song’ from his Plain Tales from the Hills)? The most exciting discovery, however, has to be Random Round (1912), which, to quote the composer, ‘arose out of the possibility of modern musicians being capable of combining the communal improvisation of South Sea Islanders with the harmonic consciousness of our written art-music.’ Though Grainger ironed out the piece’s more daringly aleatoric components in the present 1954 12-hand arrangement, it remains a mesmerizing experience.
It’s tricky enough to capture the sound of one piano properly, let alone three, so plaudits all round to the Chandos production-crew for solving so triumphantly the daunting problems of acoustic, balance and timbre associated with such an unusual instrumental combination. Another splendid addition, in sum, to this massive ongoing project.'