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Recordings
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| Recordings | To date, there are ten commercially available CDs of the Music of Erik Chisholm. Essentially Scottish released in 1997 is no longer available but being his first ever CD deserves special mention. It contains only one short Chisholm item, Harris Dance, played by celebrated Dutch pianist, Ronald Brautigam.
Recently Brautigam recorded Chisholm's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the BBC SSO for John Purser's Radio series 'Scotland's Music'. Excerpts were broadcast on Radio Scotland late in 2007; a broadcast of the entire work is still awaited.
| The CD Songs for a Year and a Day produced in 2000 by Donald Graham is an interesting collection of songs by Chisholm, Victor Hely-Hutchinson and Thomas Rajna, all composers with connections to the University of Cape Town's College of Music.
Murray McLachlan, one of Scotland's leading concert pianists, has recorded eight CDs of Chisholm's piano music over a ten-year period, the first being released in 1998 under the Olympia label. The long association with Dunelm Records under its energetic devoted director Jim Pattison began in 2001. Jim's remarkable web site long carried reviews and sound snippets of Chisholm's music.
On Jim's retirement in April 2008, the Music for Piano series was transferred to Divine Arts Records, directed by Stephen Sutton. Stephen launched the series with a bang, re-releasing Vol. 1 - 4 in November 2008. Click here to read more Vol. 5 was released in April 2009; Vol. 6 and Vol. 7 will be released in 2010 and Vol. 8 in 2011.
Dutton Epoch has recently produced two CDs with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under conductor Martin Yates. The first in 2007 contains Chisholm's Symphony No. 2 . Trevor Hold's 'The Unreturning Spring' and Eric Fogg's 'Sea Sheen' .
The second CD released in 2009 contains Chisholm's Pictures from Dante see new recordings for details. |
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| Where to get Recordings | Erik Chisholm Piano Music (Olympia, OCD639) and Claremont CSE Songs for a year and a Day can be ordered from the Erik Chisholm Trust by e-mail: morag.chisholm@virgin.net.
| The Music for Piano Series Vol. 1 to 5 and the earlier Dunelm Records CD's (DRD174 & 219) can be ordered by post from
Divine Art Recordings Group 8, The Beeches, East Harsley, Northallerton, DL6 2DJ
or by e-mail from stephen@divine-art.com.
You will find details about Divine Art Record Company, including an up to date Newsletter, on Divine Art Record Company. Watch there for reviews of the series, a 'labour of love', according to Peter Grahame Woolf in his review of Vol. 4.
A comprehensive review by John France of the 4-volume reissue can be read on Music Web.
The two Dutton Epoch CD's may be ordered directly from the Trust directly at a special promotion price, or from the Record Company Dutton Epoch |
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| Dutton Epoch CDLX 7239 | |  |
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Pictures from Dante Erik Chisholm
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Conductor Martin Yates
Symphony No. 3 Stanley Bate
Prelude 'Black Mountain'
Robert Flaherty - Impression Richard Arnell |
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Pictures from Dante
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Conducted by Martin Yates
Jeffrey Davis gave the CD a 5 star review saying "Don't miss this one", online at Amazon.co.uk. Later he says "Pictures from Dante" plunges us headlong into the nightmare world of Dante's 'Inferno'. The despairing and catastrophic opening of the work is wonderfully intimidating. The work offers the contrast of its very moving second section 'Paradiso' where a noble theme leads us into a most poetic movement.
Read the full review by Jeffrey Davis
Fanfare July/August 2010
Dutton continues its irreplaceable campaign of historical restitution with this highly anticipated release offering world premier recordings of significant works by three English 20th-century composers who have been unjustly eclipsed by the musical establishment’s fecklessly shortsighted championship of postwar avant-guard trends.
Editor’s note; with an opening like that we shall forgive the reviewer calling Erik Chisholm an English composer; later he does describe EC as Scottish - but South African adopted
Of the diptych Pictures from Dante, he says Most of the music derives from an earlier ballet and superficially packs a thrilling and dramatic wallop that is sumptuously orchestrated. The first movement, subtitled Inferno is a rich and tempestuous theme and variations; the second, ‘Paradiso’, a fervent hymn of infinitely transfiguring spirituality.
Paul A. Snook
Erik Chisholm’s ‘Pictures from Dante’ offers us the Inferno and the Paradiso, via a succession of mini-movements within two larger narrative frame-works. Individual cantos and engravings are cited and this certainly helps at select points in both works- especially in the overlapping flute ostinato initially with wind accompaniment, which insightfully illustrates an infinite sweep of angels spiraling upward through an endless firmament, as Dante and Beatrice observe.
Chisholm’s pictorial imagination is admirable and in the main avoids the clichés associated with musically depicting a heaven and hell.
Barry Brenesal.
American Record Guide May/June 2010
Erik Chisholm’s two-part 1948 tableau Pictures from Dante most certainly is not pastoral. Inferno is a grim, noisy concantenation of fire, brimstone, grotesqueries and devastation. One might decribe it as a continuation of war music by other means. Paradiso is harmonious and dignified, with sonorous chorales based on plainchant that arise from and evaporate into ethereal tranquility.
LEHMAN |
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| Dutton Epoch - CDLX 7196 | Extract of review by Rob Barnett
Dutton here meets the challenge of the belligerent hunter of musical rarities head-on. There are no compromises; no half-measures. You look in vain for a popular filler. Not that this approach is new to Dutton. They are used to the pursuit of gems among the esoteric. Here is a disc which speaks of Dutton’s musicality at its peak. It must have been an expensive project too – involving full orchestra, scores and parts to prepare, solo singers and a booklet including full sung texts and very extensive notes by Lewis Foreman.
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Symphony No. 2 "Ossian" Erik Chisholm
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Conductor Martin Yates
The Unreturning Spring - Trevor Hold
Sea Sheen & Merok - Eric Fogg
BBC Concert Orchestra
Conducted by Gavin Sutherland
and Vernon Handley
See News and Events for details |
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Erik Chisholm’s Second Symphony bears the name of the Celtic hero Ossian. He was also the subject of Yeats’ dramatic poem The Wanderings of Usheen – which was the begetter and accelerant for Bax’s life-long absorption into the Gaelic world. Until the recording sessions it was never performed as a symphony although it was quarried for the four-scene ballet The Earth-Shapers which was choreographed by Margaret Morris and did receive performances. Read the whole review
Extract of review by Calum MacDonald, International Record Review, p30 Feb 2008
Certainly the Symphony could be viewed as a warlike, combative work. It generally lacks the strong Scottish folk elements and Bartókian stylistic parallels which are found in most of the other Chisholm works so far recorded: perhaps he felt that ancient history required a more universal idiom. If any outside influence is to be felt, it is that nearly universal one on British symphonies of the 1930s (cf. Bax, Walton, Moeran, Dyson et al) - namely Sibelius, certainly an apt model in the circumstances. What of the music? It is inventive to the point of busyness, colourfully, sometimes brashly and occasionally thickly scored, given to touches of gawky fugato or (for example, in the later pages of the first movement) to over-repetitious ostinato. It is rhythmically extremely lively - the Scherzo-Toccata is quite a tour de force and the main Allegro animato section of the finale carries one along with a fine sweep and impetus - and in fact there is not much repose until the finale's elegiac Adagio epilogue, with its lyrically lamenting melodies.
The Royal Scottish National Orchestra seems to throw itself into it with gusto, and Martin Yates directs a genuinely exciting performance which convinces one that the work deserves far better than the complete obscurity which has covered it for nearly 70 years.
Extract of review from American Record Guide; May/June issue 2008
The Second Symphony was written in 1939 in three movements. It was never performed as such, but the composer later used its themes in a wartime ballet called the Earth Shapers. The score was reconstructed from a manuscript at the University of Cape Town. It is an arresting work based on Celtic themes that reminds me of Sibelius more than anyone else. Each movement has a tremendous sense of underlying power. I think it deserves to be heard at least occasionally in concert halls. |
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| Erik Chisholm: Music For Piano, Volume 5 | |  |
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Murray McLachlan (piano).
Music for Piano, Volume 5 (Divine Arts DDV24140) (2005). Includes Piobaireachd: nos 14, 16, 17, 19-23, Sonatina no. 5, Sonatina no. 6, Cameos, Sonatine Ecossaise, Harris Dance, Tango, Sonata, Elektra, Dance Bacchanal |
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“This album maintains the standard of this series, one of the most worth-while integrales in recorded history of pianist/composers. A fine recital programme.” – Peter Grahame Woolf (Musical Pointers).
Music for Piano Volume 5 is available from Divine Arts
Erik CHISHOLM (1904-1965)
Music for Piano - Volume 5
Piobaireachd for solo piano (undated) [24:29]
Sonatina No.5 (undated) [6:07]
Sonatina No.6 (1946) [6:54]
Cameos (1926) [10:01]
Sonatina Ecossaise (1929 rev. 1951) [10:51]
Harris Dance (undated) [3:36]
Tango (1926) [3:04]
Sonata Electra (undated) [4:35]
Dance Bacchanal (1924) [4:42]
Murray McLachlan (piano)
rec. 18 -22 December 2006 Whiteley Hall, Chetham’s School of Music, Manchester
DIVINE ART DIVERSIONS DDV 24131 [74:37]
Music Web Review - by John France
I have already given a thumbnail sketch of Erik Chisholm’s life and works in my review of the first four volumes of this cycle on MusicWeb International. Furthermore there is great deal of biographical information in the Chisholm Web pages. However, three things as the kirk minister once said, are useful to bear in mind. Firstly, Erik William Chisholm is one of a group of British composers who have been unjustly neglected: he is often known as Scotland’s Forgotten Composer. Much of his music is inspired and informed by the Scottish folk-music heritage. Secondly his output of music was considerable, with a huge emphasis on the piano repertoire. And lastly, in spite of the fact of his nickname MacBartók, his music is original and quite often groundbreaking, without being novel or eccentric for its own sake... Read More
International Piano Review of Diversions ddv24140
Like the first four volumes of Murray McLachlan’s survey of the piano music of the Scottish composer Erik Chisholm (1904-65) – reviewed in the March/April 2009 issue of IP – this fifth installment brings uneven rewards, but the best of it is unlike anything else in music. What makes the best of Chisholm unique is his transfer of piobaireachd (pibroch), the ancient idiom of the Highland bagpipe, to the modern piano keyboard. The mixture of modality and decoration instantly sounds Celtic, but Chisholm adds the quality of individualism you’d expect from this kind of radical traditionalist – the music of his friend Bartók offers a close parallel.
Murray McLachlan goes at the music with all the enthusiasm of a dog greeting a postman, giving full-blooded accounts of the more extrovert pieces and fleshing out the thinner ones, the effect emphasised by the closeness of the recording. If ever we get the chance to compare different approaches to Chisholm, it will be thanks to McLachlan’s pioneering efforts in the first place.
Martin Anderson
FanFare Magazine 18th November 2009 by Colin Clarke
Recently, in Fanfare 32:6, I reviewed the first four volumes of Divine Art’s excellent series showcasing the music of Eric Chisholm (1904–1965). There, I provided a précis of Chisholm’s activities. As I explained then, “Piobaireachd” refers to the classical music of the Highland bagpipes of Scotland. Chisholm was proud of his Scottish heritage, and parallels between his excavations and those of Bartók run deep.
Read more
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