Composer, Grant
Foster www.grant-foster.com was born in Sydney, Australia and studied piano with
Alexander Sverjensky (1901-1971) at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music before
studying with Marcel Ciampi (1891-1980) in Paris. He began composing at an
early age and wrote his first opera, Dark
Love, at the age of fifteen.
Eventually, his music was heard by producers in London
resulting in his composing of incidental music for Peter Pan directed by Sir Robert Helpmann. The show was a big success
and ran for seven consecutive Christmas Seasons.
On his return to Sydney, Foster recorded his first major
classical piano work, Rhapsody for Piano
and Orchestra: War; Peace; Love, for EMI Records. Classical music reviewer
in Melbourne, Bob Crimeen, wrote of the Rhapsody: ‘He has written a composition
that could in time, be regarded as one of the most significant contributions by
an Australian to classical music.’
March 2009 saw the premiere of the Ballad for Two Pianos in France and later that year premiere
performances of the Piano Sonata and Overture La Paolina and a recording of Songs
of Love and Loss. His Piano Concerto in C Minor was premiered in London in 2010.
Foster’s The Pearl of Dubai Suite was
recorded in 2011 followed by a recording of his three songs set to poems by
Oscar Wilde and the Ballad of Reading
Gaol.
A previous recording for Bel Air Music www.belairmusic.com received an
enthusiastic response from Gramophone reviewer Andrew Lamb ‘This is amazing!
Where has Grant Foster been all these years? The Celebration Overture simply blew me away! I really haven’t heard
anything as striking as this for a long while.’ (Gramophone March 2008).
Melba Recordings www.melbarecordings.com.au have now released a recording of piano
works by Grant Foster entitled When Love
Speaks featuring the composer as pianist.
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| MR 301147 |
Grant Foster opens his recording with his Romance in C sharp minor, written in 2015
and adapted from a song by the composer, bringing forceful chords before
relaxing and expanding into gentler bars. This music is shot through with the
nostalgia of Rachmaninov yet wholly original, showing Foster’s fine gift for
melody. Foster himself proves to be a very fine pianist, shaping and
structuring the music beautifully before rising to more dynamic moments, then
to find a gentle coda.
His Romance in C,
written like the Romance in C sharp minor in 2015 and based on a theme from his
Second Piano Concerto, opens gently and tentatively as a descending theme is
slowly set out. There is a rather haunting atmosphere before the music finds a gentle
forward movement, always with a little hesitant catch to the flow.
Foster’s Piano Sonata,
written in 2012 and revised in 2015 is a personal response to war. It is in three movements. The Adagio passionato, molto espressivo opens
with a forceful series of chords before further, broader chords underpin the
theme. The music moves through some rather beautiful harmonic changes before
speeding through some quite wonderful, virtuosic passages played with
tremendous assurance, with the theme still heard running through the more
complex writing.
The Lento, molto
espressivo opens quietly with an underlying feel of tragedy. Foster slowly
develops the theme through some wonderful, sensitively formed moments, finding
a lovely gentle refined section of exquisite beauty. Occasionally there is a
Beethovenian sense of depth and tragedy in the way Foster brings slow,
deliberate chords. The music subtly turns to a brighter atmosphere, rising
through some beautifully controlled passages before slowing and falling back in
the most melancholy of moments to lead to a finely shaped coda.
There is an underlying turmoil as the Allegro vivace slowly increases in tempo and dynamics, running
quickly through constantly changing passages as the theme develops. Soon the
music slows to bring a rather lovely, slower, more relaxed section. Again it is
the way Foster shapes and phrases every detail that is really quite wonderful.
The music suddenly speeds through a fast moving varied passage that rises and
falls all over the keyboard to the sudden coda.
Elegy: In homage to
Sir Robert Helpmann (1986) slowly emerges into a beautifully conceived
melody that gently finds its way through some lovely passages. There is a
really lovely left hand counterpoint that adds so much to the main theme that constantly
changes in its tempo and rhythm before rising in drama and passion through the
most impressive moments with some fine rippling phrases. There are lovely little
harmonic twists and turns before finding the exquisite delicacy of the opening.
Bydlo is
dedicated to the artist, Geraldine van Heemstra http://geraldinevanheemstra.com and
was inspired by an etching by her that is reproduced in the CD booklet. There
is a fine billowing of sound in the opening before moving through passages of
more gently rippling, insistent ideas over which the theme develops. There are many
little subtleties that run through this fine piece before a sudden coda.
Foster’s Six Preludes
were written in 2011 and all but the first inspired by and dedicated to
friends. Prelude 1 has a simple
little theme which is delicately set out before being gently developed. It has
a rather sad, haunting quality with moments of often aching emotion before rising
a little in dynamics to fall back for a gentle coda. Prelude 2 has a gentle flow with Foster finding a subtle forward
propulsion before a gentle coda.
Prelude 3 brings a
gently trickling flow of melody before finding a greater flow with a forward
rhythmic pulse, slowly adding decorations around the melody. Prelude 4 has a lovely undulating melody,
full of nostalgia, rising through passages of increased passion before a
gentler coda.
Prelude 5 opens
with a rather darker feel as it slowly moves ahead before finding a lighter
character. It weaves a lovely theme through ever changing ideas. Prelude 6 brings some rather lovely
harmonies as this fine theme finds its way forward through the most lovely of
passages with the lovely harmonies adding so much.
Ballade (2009) rises
out of slow, lower phrases to reveal a theme in the right hand that continues over
the opening left hand motif. Slowly little variations occur as the music
travels through some exquisite moments, always retaining a melancholic air. The
music slowly increases in tempo in some varied rhythmic passages, rising more
forcefully through passages of great strength, with some lovely playing from
Foster, virtuosic, powerful and wonderfully phrased. Later the music falls through
gentler, more delicate bars that ripple wonderfully over the keyboard before finding
slow chords that bring a hesitant flow before rising dramatically for the coda.
This is an impressive work in a collection of very fine
piano pieces. Here is a composer well work investigating. Whilst there are occasional
influences that show through Grant Foster is a distinctive voice in his own
right.
He receives an excellent recording and there are brief but
useful notes on the music by the composer.
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