REVIEW: Finger Prints

Paul Guinery

EM Records

CD088

Finger Prints is the latest in what rapidly seems to be becoming a series of recordings by Paul Guinery for the EM Records label and I’m sure it will be welcome to Light Music fans interested in the salon music of several Light Music Luminaries. Among the familiar names are Haydn Wood, Richard Addinsell, Billy Mayerl and names more frequently associated with mainstream “classical” music including Frank Bridge, Lennox Berkeley and Roger Quilter. Along the way are four world premiere recordings. 

First up, we have Charles Macklin’s The Cockney Crawl. The generous liner notes point out that sadly very little is known about this composer outside of his work as a cinema musician, but The Cockney Crawl, despite its title, owes a great deal to the ragtime, and cakewalk styles imported from American popular music in the early 20th century. Later, we have Jack Strachey’s Anna’s Polka, a charming if meandering piece with a memorable central theme to which pianist Paul Guinery brings his own humorous harmonic additions in its later iterations. The “Tune-A-Minute” girl, Peggy Cochrane supplies the third premiere recording on this disc with Busy Day. It is a veritable flurry for the fingers of the pianist, though it does have a wonderfully blues inflected island of calm in the middle section- time perhaps to watch the world go by on an otherwise busy day! The fourth premiere is Jack Wilson’s Shadows on the Moon- a triumph for Guinery, who reconstructed the work from the composer’s own manuscript (only one of his pieces was ever published). It is a lively and virtuosic work, in some ways cut from the same cloth as Mayerl’s works and it was in fact to Wilson that Mayerl dedicated his own piece Nimble-Fingered Gentleman. 

The disc boasts some genuine classics of their kind as well, including a beautifully played rendition of Amy Woodforde-Finden’s Kashmiri Love Song (a.k.a. Pale Hands I Loved) and Haydn Wood’s Longing. Of course, Billy Mayerl is a natural choice for inclusion on such a disc and his Shy Ballerina is a real treat, actually previously unknown to me. Four tracks are dedicated to Henry Revel, a classically trained London musician, who became known for his Light Music making in Europe and beyond. He is perhaps best known as half of the songwriting duo for Ziegfeld Follies of 1931 with Mack Gordon. 

Edward German also makes a welcome appearance with his Polish Dance, an entertaining mazurka, which falls just short of sounding Polish, but is a very finely written Chopin-influenced piano work nevertheless. Bridge’s early Berceuse is a welcome inclusion. A truly great composer, this piece is far from up there with his best work, but is is a charming work from the relatively young composer. Berkeley’s Java is arranged by Peter Dickinson (composer and author of Mayerl’s biography) boasting both a lightness of touch and slightly piquant harmonies. It is Richard Addinsell whose Blithe Spirit waltz closes the disc and it is a wonderful note to go out on. Written for the film of Noël Coward’s play, it carries all the wit and charm on Coward’s work and is played with dexterity by Guinery, who expertly navigates the tricky pianistic terrain without ever falling into the trap of being heavy handed. 

It is a perfect disc to accompany your quiet night in with a nice glass of wine and some cheese (as I discovered!) and for anyone interested in lighter chamber works, I can wholeheartedly recommend it. Cheers! DA