Phillip Ramey, composer

Stephen Gosling, piano
[credit: Phillip Ramey]

Review

Jens Laurson Classical WETA

<>Most of the material on this CD is recorded for the first time – and it shows Ramey to have been a composer with the strongest of identities and a consistency throughout his career.

Ramey is modernist in the conventionally understood sense – rhythmical pulse is its single most important element, cloaking powerfully expressive melodic motifs. His work is self-evidently post-Romantic, and pays homage to the piano tradition – the Toccata reminiscent of Schumann, or the finale of Sonata 1 has allusions to Pour le piano and Children’s Corner. As the notes suggest, a strong structural awareness and harmonic interest pervade Ramey’s work and give the sense of a powerful cerebrally inclined, severe imagination.

But Ramey does not write without charm; indeed, the Color Etudes that open the disc are arguably the highlight of the whole CD, notably the melodic invention of Gold, and the pointillistic energy of Green. Elsewhere, the personal element in Ramey’s composition is very evident - the Tangier Portraits include one of Ramey’s friend Paul Bowles, also a composer, but far better known as the author of The Sheltering Sky, and a trenchant picture of Ramey himself. Ramey’s friend and teacher Tcherepnin, is commemorated by Memorial.

Gosling takes on the challenge of this music head-on. He is unashamedly virtuosic, precise in technique, his musicality well-crafted. He deals effortlessly, for example, with the difficult textures of the left-hand sonata. Yet, his playing is most convincing in lyrical and reflective moments – the affectionate, musette-like portrayal of ‘Bowles at 80’ and the brief, tinkling Chromatic Waltz, the understanding sensitivity with which he plays Memorial, the elegiac Red and the liturgical Purple. Elsewhere, as at the start of Silver, in Black or in the Sonata 2 finale, the abruptness of his attack can become too relentless for comfort.

The recording is close and at times almost overpowering, not unacceptable for such direct repertoire. Good notes and presentation, although unfortunate that Gosling’s picture is placed inside the inlay tray in such a way that the central spike holding in the CD itself exactly obscures his nose. Overall, a disc of very great interest.

Ying Chang Musical Pointers

Philip Ramey is familiar to music lovers for his program annotations (most notably for the New York Philharmonic) and his extensive interviews with composers. He is also a prodigious composer. As this brilliantly played and recorded program illustrates, he writes effectively for the piano. Most of these etudes, waltzes, sonatas, portraits, and fantasies are sombre in mood, grand in gesture, and virtuosi in technique. Polyphonic textures are a legacy of his teacher Alexander Tcherepnin, whose 1977 memorial for piano is one of the most atmospheric pieces on this album. The earlier pieces such as Sonata 1 from 1961 have a Prokofieff-like tang to crunch; the later ones such as Colour Etudes from 1994 and the Four Tangier Portraits from 1991-99 tend to be more meditative and lyrical, though Ramey is much too tough-minded to succumb to the neoromanticism of the moment.

Stephen Gosling is a strong executant of all these works. It’s a harrowing assignment given the stringent technical demands. He plays the quite pieces with majestic serenity and wallops the hell out of the more extroverted ones, such as the final toccata. As someone who has been influenced by Ramey’s writing since I was a child, I find that his music is even stronger that his prose.

Sullivan American Record Guide

Review

Gary Higginson MusicWeb International

Review

Colin Anderson Classical Source

Impressive Authority

Anthony Davie Music & Vision