Robert Saxton: Piano Music
In its bell-like sonorities, clear textures and ritual manner, the piano music of Robert Saxton (born in London in 1953) suggests an almost oriental fascination with light and the way light refracts and diffracts – and yet it is audibly music written by an Englishman. In the two Books of Saxton’s Hortus Musicae in particular, this fascinating confluence generates a soundworld somewhere downstream from Takemitsu and Tippett, giving these gardens of music both a ceremonial dignity and sense of spring growth.
Clare Hammond, piano
Listen To This Recording:
- Chacony for Piano Left Hand (1988)
- Sonata for Piano (1981)
- Hortus Musicae Book 1: I Hortus Somniorum
- Hortus Musicae Book 1: II Hortus Temporis
- Hortus Musicae Book 1: III Hortus Cantus
- Hortus Musicae: Book 1 IV Hortus Infinitatis
- Hortus Musicae Book 1: V Saltatio Hortensis
- Hortus Musicae Book 2: I The flowers appear on the earth
- Hortus Musicae Book 2: II Light on the Water Garden
- Hortus Musicae Book 2: III The Garden of Changing Perspective
- Hortus Musicae Book 2: IV Beech Bank
- Hortus Musicae Book 2: V Light on the Hedgerows
- Hortus Musicae Book 2: VI The Garden at Dusk
- Hortus Musicae Book 2: VII Hortus Animae Alis Fugacis
- Lullaby for Rosa (2016)*
Hortus Musicae, Book 1 (2013)*
Hortus Musicae, Book 2 (2015)*
*FIRST RECORDINGS
Planet Hugill :
‘[Chacony for Piano Left Hand] is a strenuous, virtuosic piece which nonethless manages to achieve a remarkably luminous sound. […]
Throughout Clare Hammond plays with virtuosity, power and delicacy, and is clearly in sympathy with Saxton’s rather magical sound-world. But that does not mean that this is aetherial and New Age, quite the contrary and Hammond finds bravura moments and dark corners in the music too. Each of the Hortus Musicae suites forms a satisfying piece (and Saxton has carefully constructed the pitch relationships between the movements), but together they make a striking whole.’
—Robert Hugill, Planet Hugill
Gramophone :
‘Central to the music’s efficaciousness is Hammond herself, of course. Book 1 arguably foregrounds the surface qualities of her playing, such as purity of line and shape, but Book 2 delves deeper, challenging the pianist to maintain clarity and transparency in often more complex and multilayered settings.
Hammond also gives an excellent account of the much earlier Piano Sonata. […] That Hammond succeeds on both counts is testimony to her musicianship but also to Saxton’s ability to write effectively with performer and instrument in mind.’
—Pwyll ap Siôn, Gramophone
Sunday Times :
‘Saxton’s work united craftsmanly rigour and a wide-ranging fantasy, the latter quality being explicit here in a double sequence entitled Hortus Musicae, Book 1 and Book 2. These “musical gardens” variously invoke what he calls a “sacred space”, taking inspiration from Marvell, Auden, the Song of Solomon and even Proust, in the beautiful reminiscences of Beech Bank (A la recherche). Hammond begins her deft recital with the Chacony for Piano Left Hand and single-movement Sonata.’
—Sunday Times
BBC Music Magazine :
‘This fine disc, beautifully performed by Clare Hammond, sheds welcome light on the composer’s solo piano music and brings together Saxton’s interest in early Christian mysticism, Medieval and Renaissance music, as well as his tonal and serialist training.
Earlier works begin the disc, including the tautly-structured Piano Sonata (1981) and Chacony for Piano Left Hand (1988). The latter opens to cautious whole-tone scales before swirling with dense and majestic counterpoint and receives an exhilarating reading from Hammond. But at the disc’s centre are premiere recordings of Books 1 and 2 of Hortus Musicae (Garden of Music), composed in 2013 and 2015, which explore the notion of the garden as a ‘sacred space’. These two collections are enchanting: at once playful and serious, exploratory, intellectually vigorous and, very often, deeply poignant.’
—BBC Music Magazine
British Music Society :
‘Clare Hammond’s gratifying penchant for contemporary keyboard works is convincingly displayed here in a compelling collection of piano pieces by Robert Saxton.
Saxton’s highly-engaging keyboard compositions are captured with real panache. The release opens with a gripping interpretation atmospheric sonata Chacony for left hand, delivered with some impressive phrasing. […]
Ms Hammond is professionally welltravelled and enjoys a wide-ranging solo experience which belies her years. Forceful and versatile keyboard playing, ranging from the gentlest of pianissimos to the thunderous rigour and vigour of a full forte, shows how much her ambassadorial soloist talent is much sought after.
A penetrative insight and outstanding fingering certainly pay dividends in these interpretations of scores conceived by Britain’s highlyrespected composer, Robert Saxton.
Robert Saxton’s textures and wonderful atmospheres are delivered through an urgent virility and clear finger work. Incandescent playing sparkles without ever becoming brutal. This is a strongly characterized reading featuring a sensual touch.’
—Chris Bye, British Music Society