PENGUIN GUIDE TO COMPACT DISCS:
Raymond Clarke now provides what is the most satisfying single disc of Copland’s piano music. He opens with the early Passacaglia, composed in 1921-2, while the composer was in Paris and dedicated to Nadia Boulanger. It is a self-consciously serious work, easy to follow, and in Clarke’s hands attractively diverse. The “craggy” Piano Variations of 1930 follow on naturally after it (even the keys are related). Clarke then proves completely at home in the Sonata. His opening is arresting and the first movement develops thoughtfully and naturally, the main theme quite haunting. The jazzy syncopations that arrive later are handled with aplomb; the Scherzo is played with sparkling bravura, so that the serene lyricism of the finale is the more moving. The Fantasy is handled with equal understanding, especially in its changes of mood and tempo, and altogether this collection leads the field. The recording is outstandingly vivid and realistic, with a full sonority in the bass. A most satisfying and rewarding collection. *** (“outstanding”)

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE:
The piano was at the heart of Copland’s composing, and this disc brings together his most important solo piano works: the explosive 1930 Variations from his first, brief burst of ‘constructivist’ modernism; the magisterial 1941 Sonata from the time of the ‘American’ ballet scores; and the ambitious 1957 Fantasy, a continuous span lasting over half an hour, from his austere later years. They are prefaced by the 1922 Passacaglia, written when he was studying with Nadia Boulanger, a well-worked if relatively faceless piece. The British pianist Raymond Clarke plays everything with rock-solid technique, a strong sense of purposeful movement, and outstanding clarity, both of phrasing and texture. He lacks only the touch of expressive, Romantic flexibility in simple melodies which Copland frequently invited with the marking ‘rubato’ or other instructions. The recording is adequate, but the extreme upper register (much used by Copland) catches too much of the hall acoustic and is not well integrated with the rest.

The benchmark for all these works would have been the late Leo Smit’s classic performances in his two-disc set of Copland’s complete piano music (Sony) but sadly this is currently out of the catalogue. Eric Parkin’s single-disc selection (Silva Screen) includes the Passacaglia, Variations and Sonata, in likeable but somewhat understated readings. Mark Anderson, in a live recital of Copland and Gershwin, gives an outstanding account of the Sonata, bringing out its lyricism without compromising its incisiveness. But Clarke’s whole programme, especially the rarely heard Fantasy, can be enthusiastically recommended.  Performance: **** Sound ***
Anthony Burton

MUSICWEB:
Raymond Clarke’s recordings of Shostakovich and Szymanowski have brought forth critical acclaim (both were issued on the Athene label). This all-Copland disc from Divine Art does not disappoint. It gathers together four major pieces on one disc of 77 minutes’ playing time. Divine Art provide faultless production values, from the entirely apposite and tasteful cover of New York (taken from the top of the World Trade Center, destroyed 10 days after this recording session), to the booklet notes by the pianist himself. From the recording information given by Divine Art, this disc was put down in one day. If that is indeed the case, Clarke’s achievement is all the more remarkable.

The four pieces are played in chronological order. The Passacaglia, written while the composer was in his early twenties and dedicated to his then teacher Nadia Boulanger, works remarkably well, not least perhaps because the formal constraints of the chosen form rein in Copland’s manner (he can on occasion show a propensity towards the diffuse). Clarke gives a strong yet carefully shaded account that grows to a very imposing ‘processional’ towards the end. The recording, also, is beyond criticism, full and spacious yet detailed.

The Variations brings immediate contrast. Here a sparer, quasi-atonalist, almost Webernian atmosphere elicits a more muscular performance from Clarke (which also, however, includes some delicate pianissimo playing). The conceit of putting the first Variation before the exposition of the theme itself is not mere compositional trickery, but entirely in keeping with the elusive ethos of the work. Every note not only speaks but is carefully weighted in this performance.

The Piano Sonata is a major work (Bernstein, no less, recorded it for RCA early in his career). It is true that Clarke here comes directly in competition with Leon Fleisher (Philips Great Pianists of the Twentieth Century 456 775-2), but taken in the context of the present programme he is entirely convincing. Clarke emphasises the contrasts of this piece, being meltingly, hauntingly lyrical at times, spikily rhythmic at others. More than anything, though, he brings out the granite-like structure of the work, enjoying the spiky, dance-like rhythms along the way. If the middle movement (Vivace), is more immediately approachable, the finale is contrastingly bare, more ‘lonely’ music. The immensely delicate close is guaranteed to haunt the memory.

The mere title of Piano Fantasy probably will not prepare the unwary for a 33-minute piece. Nevertheless, that’s what it is. Dedicated to the memory of William Kapell, its proclamatory opening is enough to wake one up after the dream-like dissolve of the Sonata’s close. Despite its length, it is compelling from first to last. Clarke is completely unapologetic in his ruggedness, which makes the evocations of calm all the more effective. It was a brave, yet it turns out inspired, decision to end the recital with this work.

My recording of the month, without a shadow of a doubt. For anyone who has yet to experience the wonders of Copland’s music for piano, here is the place to start.
Colin Clarke

FEDERATION OF RECORDED MUSIC SOCIETIES BULLETIN:
Aaron Copland wrote some of the most tuneful and popular music written in the twentieth century. Many admirers of his ‘popular’ scores such as his cowboy ballets are not aware that he also wrote ‘serious’ music whose twelve-tone serialism was in complete contrast with not a hint of a tune to be heard. These ‘serious’ works were written both at the beginning of his career and also at the end. The piano music on this disc all falls into this category and none offers any hint of his popular style. None the less, these works have some of the stylistic features as the more accessible scores.

Raymond Clarke is very much at one with modern music and although his repertoire includes Mozart and Schubert he has recorded music by Panufnik, Shostakovich and Webern. He plays the works on this disc with intensity and conviction and writes notes on the music which demonstrate his dedication to this music. The disc starts with Passacaglia (1921-2), dedicated to Nadia Boulanger and written when he studied with her in Paris – it is a fascinating work which becomes clear upon repeated hearings as does also the Piano Variations of 1930 with its dramatic pauses and resonances which are described in the notes as vindictive and spiteful.

The Piano Sonata (1939-41) is in three movements of which the last, andante sostenuto, is the longest and most interesting with, as played here, the listener hanging on to every note – remarkable tension. The last piece, the Piano Fantasy (1955-57), is the longest. It incorporates elements of serialism within an essentially tonal style. It is a fascinating piece and the hardest for the listener of the works on the disc.
Arthur Baker

OZARTSREVIEW:
The other evening, I conducted a snap mini-poll among some friends. What, I asked, were the two works that sprang first to mind on hearing the name Aaron Copland? All of the eight polled named Appalachian Spring as a first choice, and, as second, three chose Fanfare for the Common Man, two named Rodeo and the remaining three opted for El Salon Mexico. But when I asked how many of Copland's works for solo piano they could name, none of the eight - each an enthusiastic and experienced follower of music - could come up with an answer.

Passacaglia, with its stark and sombre octaves in the left hand, conjures up images of implacable, giant-like strides across a landscape. Here, Clarke, at a superb Steinway piano, hurls massive chunks of sound through the speakers; it's presented with immense authority, taking all Copland's contrapuntal ingenuity in his stride.

Copland's Piano Variations is music that ranges from the tender and lyrical to measures that bristle with brusqueness, music that startles with, for want of better words, its sneering, in-your-face quality. Other variations irresistibly call up images of torment, of a barely contained hysteria. And there are, too, moments which would be an entirely appropriate soundtrack for a movie scene depicting vindictiveness and spite.

Somewhere, Copland has written that for his Variations to succeed in performance, the whole should seem to be greater than the sum of its constituent parts. On the evidence of this recording, Raymond Clarke succeeds in this - and succeeds well. Certainly, this is a performance to which I've returned again and again, with each hearing providing fresh insights into a work that ought to be far more frequently heard.

Copland's Fantasy runs for just over half an hour. Much of it is couched in improvisatory-like terms, music that takes the listener across constantly changing, sometimes startling musical territory. In less authoritative hands, this could well sound meandering, formless and tedious.

Clarke, happily, has a rare gift, an ability to give point and meaning to even the most abstruse and esoteric of writing, and succeeds in conveying a sense of logic, no mean feat in so complex a work. The score is dotted with directions to the pianist: "hurried and tense", "gradual return to poetic, drifting", to which Clarke responds with an answering depth of expressiveness. It's a major achievement.

Clarke, in fact, turns the work into musical gold with magnificent washes of sound, moments of heart-easing tenderness with, elsewhere, tone that has an altogether pleasing needle-sharp, diamond-bright quality. I especially admired Clarke's exponential skill some twenty minutes into the work where we hear what sounds for all the world like some frenzied carillon and muscularly emphasized note clusters.

This ability to bring cogency and clarity to what in other hands could sound impenetrable, is impressive. This is musical problem-solving at a high level.

Neil Butterworth once described Copland's Piano Sonata as 'abstract music of ascetic introversion'. And who, hearing the work, would gainsay him? Although not without its strident moments and lively, syncopated rhythms, it is the musing quietness of much of the writing that lingers longest in the memory. The central vivace is a delight with its puckish, nimble outbursts that are the quintessence of impudence.

Hopefully, Clarke's accounts of Copland's works will gain them the audience they deserve. Certainly, they've languished too long in the shadows of Copland's more frequently heard works.
Neville Cohn

INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW:
Aaron Copland’s fame rests almost entirely on consonant, approachable works such as Appalachian Spring and the Third Symphony. Throughout his career, however, he wrote music that was considerably less populist. Although some of these thornier works are orchestral (the serialist Connotations, for example, most were written for chamber ensembles or for solo piano. Divine Art’s new CD forswears Copland’s few pianistic sweetmeats entirely and goes directly to his most demanding works.

The Passacaglia was completed in 1922 during Copland’s studies with Nadia Boulanger. Biographer Howard Pollack calls it ‘a veritable textbook of contrapuntal devices’, and the composer himself owned that ‘it is not an easy piece to play’. ( A three-stave passage early in the work has been deemed well-nigh unplayable.) Nevertheless, Raymond Clarke moves past the notes themselves and creates an imposing, even monumental, effect.

The other three pieces form the core of Copland’s piano output. Variations (1930) was caviare to the general at its première. A four-note motif carries the work through 20 diverse variations and a coda. Pollack calls it ‘ a defiant howl of a piece, rather Beethovenish in its balance of intellectual rigor and prophetic fervor’. The massive Sonata, begun in 1939, is similarly challenging and frugal, although there are softening allusions to jazz and folk music. Leonard Bernstein championed it almost immediately.

The Piano Fantasy (1955-57) was Copland’s final masterpiece for solo piano. Here, the composer tempers by-the-numbers serialism with a both literally and figuratively ‘fantastic’ (yet finely controlled) explosion of musical ideas. Like Variations and the Sonata, this is a work that critics and musicologists love, but that most listeners have been slow to embrace.

Clarke is in very good company in this repertoire. Most comprehensive are Leo Smit, who was closely connected with the composer, and Nina Tichman. Gilbert Kalish’s steely recording of Variations is a must-hear, and Charles Fierro has received accolades too. Clarke’s competitive readings show impressive technical mastery and structural insight, with less emphasis on the music’s occasional hints of Americana. The engineering makes the piano tone sound glassy, but not distressingly so. The intelligent annotations are by Clarke himself.
Raymond S. Tuttle

MUSICAL OPINION:
This CD conveniently collects Copland’s four major works for solo piano in performances of considerable sympathy and insight. There is an impressive consistency of style in Copland’s piano music which Raymond Clarke displays with a flawless technique, and all in all the sympathetic listener might begin to wonder why it is that these pieces are so little known when considering the other works within this great composer’s output which have made him consistently one of the popular composers of the 20 th century.

The recordings are particularly fine and the performances here do it full justice, piano tone being impressive. Raymond Clarke contributes his own scholarly and informative booklet notes. An important CD enthusiastically recommended.
Robert Matthew-Walker

NEW CLASSICS:
“This impressive CD features all the major solo piano works by one of America’s most revered composers, including his Passacaglia, Piano Variations, the hauntingly beautiful Piano Sonata and an ambitious Piano Fantasy. The pianist is Raymond Clarke, whose recordings so far have specialised in twentieth-century music, and on this new disc the four Copland works are played in chronological order. The performances throughout are exemplary, each note being played with great precision and delicacy”
John Pitt

YORKSHIRE POST:
A million musical miles from Copland’s popular ballet scores, his major piano works still sound uncompromisingly modern more than half a century after composition. Clarke’s impressive technique is placed entirely at the service of the music, bringing lucidity even when the page is black with notes, never diluting the percussive qualities of the Piano Variations, or smoothing the jagged quality of the Sonata. The recording made in Newcastle University brings a rather hollow sound to the piano. (but see reviews above)
David Denton

GRAMOPHONE (EXTRACT):
We need a definitive recording of the Piano Fantasy and Clarke is exactly the kind of performer to deliver it.  Unfortunately he is let down by the metallic quality of the piano in the middle register and the tuning keeps slipping after the more strident passages ... As usual all Clarke's interpretations are scrupulous ... the slow music in the last movement achieves a magical atmosphere ... In the Fantasy, as elsewhere, Clarke is in complete command of the passagework in this utterly uncompromising half-hour epic ... Overall this release is a disappointment.  First-class playing; second-class piano. (but see reviews above)
Peter Dickinson