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26 TRAVEL ALBUM
Very fewartists include pieces by the Australian composer Percy Grainger
on their programmes. How did you come across his music?
I was looking for a composer who had done the same sort of work on the folkmusic
of England, Scotland and Ireland, and I very quickly found Percy Grainger. These
pieces derived from folksongs are dedicated to Edvard Grieg, a friend of Grainger’s.
In my view, the two men share a fairly similar approach, though in rather different
styles: they not only wrote folk melodies down, but also tried to evoke as vividly as
possible the style and mode of performance of those tunes, and the instrument on
which they were played.
Percy Grainger’s piano writing falls ideally under the fingers, and I sometimes drew
my inspiration from fiddle playing to try to recreate the improvisatory spirit of folk
music, whose inner rhythm is so special.
Do you find that same authenticity in the Polish composer Szymanowski?
Definitely. Szymanowski uses genuine folk sources, and evenmentions the regions
they come from. This little cycle was composed for Oxford University Press, which
commissioned it for the anthology ‘Folk Dances of theWorld’. I have chosen to play
only three of the four
Polish Dances
here, omitting the concluding
Polonaise
, which
to be honest is in a spirit that seems to be somewhat out of place in the cycle.