Mark John McEncroe: Musical Images for Piano: Reflections and Recollections Vol. 3
Navona Records

Upon reacquainting myself a few days ago with Glenn Gould's transcription of Wagner's Siegfried Idyll, I couldn't help but be reminded of how little the orchestral arrangement suffers when reduced to solo piano. Or perhaps a better characterization would be to think less in terms of gains and losses and simply recognize that each approach offers distinct rewards. On the one hand, there's the splendour of orchestral richness, on the other a fascinating concentration on the interpretive possibilities a single instrument affords. Central to the mix is also, of course, the performer, with Gould providing a treatment as transporting as the material itself.

What this has to do with Mark John McEncroe's third volume of Reflections and Recollections should be obvious. Similar to the Wagner reduction, the ten settings on the Australian composer's latest Navona release hold up splendidly when shorn of orchestral garb and performed by a single musician, in this case Australian-born pianist Van-Anh Nguyen (the two earlier volumes were performed by Yoko Hagino and issued as a double-CD release in 2018). These reductions, by their very nature, provide an intimate account of McEncroe's compositions, which in the case of this third volume are all the more affecting when the general mood is sombre.

It would misrepresent McEncroe to suggest that his piano works are always transcriptions from orchestral arrangements. By his own admission, he works out his compositions in full on piano first and then, typically with Mark J Saliba's involvement, produces the orchestrated version. In short, while certain piano renderings on the third volume were preceded by recordings of them in an orchestral form, Movements in the Night and Echoes From a Haunted Past appear here in their original piano versions. It's also the case that some of his piano pieces remain in that state, with McEncroe acknowledging that he realizes as the material is developing whether it will stay in its piano form or eventually become an orchestral work.

The predominantly melancholic tone declares itself at the outset with Images of Times Past, a wistful reverie imbued with sadness. The picture's not entirely one-dimensional, however, as the introductory passage undergoes a transformation a third of the way through when a key change introduces a delicately radiant episode before reverting to its initial state. Without wishing to project too much, the music creates the impression of someone oscillating between recollections both uplifting and poignant. Earlier featured on 2017's Dark Clouds In Life, Echoes From a Haunted Past retains its emotional power in its stark piano arrangement and nuanced performance by Nguyen. Movements in the Night - A Symphonic Poem, which earlier appeared in a full orchestral form on 2018's My Symphonic Poems: Orchestral Images, proves as haunting in its solo piano form. One presumes that those titular movements aren't a reference to external ones but instead the inner turbulence one experiences during an occasional ‘dark night of the soul.' Here and elsewhere, Nguyen performs superbly, her sensitive and graceful approach highly sympathetic to the character of the compositions.

Hearing Moving Into the Light, the third movement from Natalie's Suite (a work for piano and orchestra included on Dark Clouds In Life), in its original piano reduction, I can't help but notice a similarity between one of its melodies and one from Seals and Crofts' “Summer Breeze,” an odd synchronicity that sometimes emerges between wholly unconnected musical pieces. A related work is Natalie's Dilemma - A Symphonic Poem, a dramatic, eleven-minute meditation whose grey skies are alleviated by the tender nostalgia of Balmy Summer Nights.

November 2020