©Novello & Co./Andrew Palmer
on hearing early performances of the piece of watching an endless and impossibly slow helicopter-shot receding upwards from a summit so that other views gradually come into the frame without losing focus on the summit itself…but these are my impressions, and I hope each listener will have his or her own, personal interpretation of the music. ©2002 Stuart MacRae Performer's note: Stuart MacRae's Piano Sonata presents the performer with intimidating technical challenges, and I consider it the most difficult work I have tackled hitherto. Most particularly, the first few minutes of the first movement, which rapidly hurtle forward into a dizzy whirlwind of a climax, require the most absolute alertness from the performer and are extremely exciting to play and to hear. Perhaps even more difficult is striking the first chord of the second movement after nearly eight minutes of some of the most energetic and violent piano playing possible - in performance, the small pause between the movements can be terrifying for the player.
Stuart Macrae struggle, so often symbolised as the climbing of a mountain. And indeed it was in my mind to find a musical expression of the sensation of climbing among the complex topography of my favourite hills in the Cuillin of Skye. So certain ideas come into view, are obscured and reappear in a different form, until finally they appear in their very closest and most imposing guise.
In spite of these challenges, this piece, as with MacMillan's Sonata, is clearly the work of a composer who completely understands the possibilities and capabilities of instrument and performer, and it is an extraordinarily rewarding piece to perform. I sincerely hope that in the future I shall have many opportunities to do so. -SS
The more reflective second movement is to some extent an expression of the calm and serenity I feel on having gained the summit. I had the impression 7
the overture to Henry Purcell's St Cecilia ode Welcome to all the pleasures of 1683 (the other variations are by William Matthias, Michael Berkeley and Gerald Victory - the four composers represent the four countries of the British Isles). However, only the tiniest fragments of what might be Purcell are heard, repeatedly shattered by a series of violent explosions; MacMillan's transformation of the original material is heard here at a more sophisticated level.
a guess as to what the title - "in time of war", alluding to Haydn among others - relates. (in angustiis... II is composed for any of solo oboe, cello or soprano, and can be performed alone or simultaneously with the piano piece). None of these small works pretends to be more than it is: they are all successful and satisfying in their own ways, and are vivid but succinct characterisations of mood through simple ideas. By contrast, the Piano Sonata - the largest, and also earliest work in MacMillan's piano output - is far more complex and involved. The composer describes its composition thus:
In a sense, the most 'original' of the small pieces are For Ian and in angustiis... I. These two pieces owe much to Scottish traditional music, the former more directly so. MacMillan likens For Ian to some of Peter Maxwell Davies' "reflective and unassuming piano works". The piece is structured, like folk music, in a simple ABA form, giving the impression of a traditional piece filtered through MacMillan's creative consciousness. in angustiis... I also follows this form; here the outer sections are comprised of a folk-like melody in clusters over an uneasy walking bass. The middle section is surreal and atmospheric, with single notes and chords spread over the full range of the keyboard, played in free time in much the same manner as in Angel, but with an unnerving rather than serene effect. The desolation of this music is characteristic of a number of MacMillan's works. Given that the work appeared in October 2001, one can hazard
I wrote my Piano Sonata during a bitter Ayrshire winter and recall the barren trees and hard frozen ground of a landscape that was empty and silent but for the harsh, hollow cry from the rookeries. This is reflected in the Sonata's tolling, mournful chords, with its bursts of violent, or delicate and icy, figuration. Throughout the three movements the music conveys a mood of elegy, of despair and desolation.
Stylistically, the Piano Sonata is very different from MacMillan's other piano works. His oeuvre can be separated into two discrete periods of compositional style, punctuated by the first string quartet, Visions of a November Spring, written in 1988 and revised in 1991. MacMillan explained the quartet as being the closest thing to 4
