This is an exceptionally fine issue celebrating John McCabe’s 60th birthday, that not only serves as a superb tribute to McCabe the composer, but also his prowess as pianist and interpreter. With regard to the latter we have much reason to be indebted to McCabe; over his career he has given us some excellent recordings both in solo piano repertory and in chamber music, not least his splendid edition of the complete Haydn piano sonatas, reissued on Decca/London (12/95). Among others, there are probing readings of Hindemith’s Ludus tonalis (Hyperion, 5/96) and a very fine disc of piano music by Bax, including a stunning rendering of the First Symphony in its original piano version (Continuum, 11/92).
Much of the piano music presented here occupies a shadowy, twilight realm where tone colours and piano timbres lean towards the darker side of the imagination. The evocative ‘Aubade’ (Study No. 4) of 1970, with its flickering appoggiaturas and arpeggio flourishes is a prime example and is imbued with a mystical ambience not dissimilar to Messiaen. The equally atmospheric ‘Gaudi’ (Study No. 3) conjures up the fantastic world of Antonio Gaudi’s extraordinary architecture, and strikingly juxtaposes tranquil episodes with frenetic and ferocious outbursts. Other works on the disc are equally compelling, but the largest and most recent of the pieces presented here, the Haydn Variations, is perhaps in many ways the most riveting, uncompromising and striking of all. The ‘theme’, taken from the Piano Sonata No. 32, HobXVI/44, is subject to all manner of pianistic philosophies and, like much of McCabe’s music in general, is filtered through both a colourful aural as well as meta-musical imagination. Good recorded sound; a must for all McCabe and British music enthusiasts.'