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Few have made a more significant contribution to the fields of contemporary, improvised and experimental music than John Tilbury. When, at 82, he decided to end his live appearances, Simon Reynell, founder of Another Timbre, asked if he might occasionally visit the pianist’s home in Deal, on the Kent coast, and record whatever happened to be on his mind. Eight years later, Tilbury has decided to hang up his hat for good, hence this four-disc set celebrating a unique artist and musical pioneer.
Morton Feldman admired the “swagger” of Tilbury and the British avant garde, and the pianist went on to become perhaps the US composer’s leading interpreter. His recording of Madame Press Died Last Week at Ninety is authoritative, a masterclass in spontaneous phrasing and sonic sensitivity.
Feldman’s vaunted restraint hovers over several works here, including music by friends from Tilbury’s time with Cornelius Cardew’s revolutionary Scratch Orchestra. Highlights include John Lely’s hypnotic Sycamore, five pensive nocturnes by Mark R Taylor and Dave Smith’s Al Contrario, a brooding contrapuntal fantasy honouring maverick French composer Charles-Valentin Alkan. For Samuel Beckett, an improvisation with pianist Sebastian Lexer taken from a 2005 concert, is one of several archival recordings included here and perhaps the most purely beautiful music in the box.
More quirky contributions include Guillaume de Machaut arranged by Kurtág, and an extraordinary recording made by Klaus Filip of Swiss dust particles, combined with an inside-piano improvisation captured in Deal. A handful of pieces were written for Tilbury’s sea-air-weathered clavichord, its deliriously plinkety-plonk tuning left to the whims of nature. Christopher Hobbs’ Five Pieces, for example, sounds like a baroque suite written for the Mad Hatter’s tea party.
An eclectic treasure chest of discoveries.
English (US) ·