Piano Sonata #6: 17 Graeme Lee Prints

Piano Sonata #6 impresses as a significant addition to the 21st century solo piano literature. If it were a novel, one would say that it has a coherent, compelling narrative. Harvey is a pianistic, compositional, and intellectual force to be reckoned with. He is a significant, highly musical virtuoso pianist and an accomplished composer writing on this occasion for himself as a performer. Some pianists dabble in composition, other composers dabble in pianism (even Stravinsky made money performing his own piano concerto), but few combine equally high standards at both. Although there are moments when the influence of jazz or particular composers comes to the fore – as I type this sentence, I am listening again to an instance of this, Fitzroy Jazz II (17/17) – the unifying voice is that of Harvey as composer, aided and abetted by himself as pianist.

Glittering aphorisms all round. What we have is yet another in the series of this great artist’s CDs for the Move company. It’s a gift to us all, the Michael Harvey Collection – one that refreshes as each album emerges. Further, the composer is clearly as creatively fertile as ever. This Sonata #6 breaks some time-honoured rules of Western composition; for example, by eschewing the form’s usual discursive nature in favour of a suite in which the compositional patterns are bogglingly complex. As an exploration of the piano’s potential for novel sounds and whole new paragraphs of activity, this disc of brief bursts – even for those familiar with the composer/pianist’s previous achievements – is a must-have.