Howard Blake plays Howard Blake 'Lifecycle' - 8: Scherzo

LIFECYCLE BOOK 1
Introduced by Howard Blake
The first eight were named "Eight Character Pieces" when first published by Faber Music c. 1985. When the next four were added they were renamed and republished as 'Twelve Piano Pieces' c.1990. The complete cycle of 24 pieces were completed in c.1996 when I finally named the work ‘Lifecycle’[Book 1 (1-12)and 2 (13-24)
In a recent sleeve-note music critic Robert Matthew Walker describes 'Lifecycle’ as a brilliantly conceived piano cycle of ‘imagination and reflection’, ranging from the technically approachable yet sublime and musically powerful ‘Prelude’ and ‘Nocturne’, to pieces such as ‘Chaconne’ and ‘Toccatina’ which feature in the Associated Board’s Diploma syllabus, and to highly-complex recital works such as ‘Scherzo’ and ‘Oberon, that demand a well-developed or virtuoso technique. ‘Lifecycle’ covers most of my creative life and is so-named for that reason. How did it come about? In 1962 after three years studying piano and composition on a scholarship at The Royal Academy of Music I was overtaken with an overwhelming desire to study film-music or even perhaps become a film-director. I managed to obtain a part-time job at The National FilmTheatre and quite by chance one evening there I happened to run into Dody (Thorunn) and Vova (Vladimir) Ashkenazy, freshly arrived from Moscow and wanting to see 'Ivan the Terrible', a film at that time totally banned in Russia! Unfortunately they had just missed a public showing and they asked me how they could get to see it. I said that I might be able to organise a 16mm-print viewing in my London flat and they jumped at the idea. Dody asked me: 'How can you do that Howard? Do you work here?' 'Yes I’m working here.' 'Have you given up music?' 'Well not entirely. I just wrote a score for a little film I made.' (‘A Few Days’, shown NFT 1, April 25, 1963.) 'Don't you play the piano any more?' She said. 'Not really.' I said. 'What a shame.' she said.
I borrowed 'Ivan' from the BFI library along with a projector and on 21st November invited some friends round for 'Beer and Eisenstein'. We ran both parts complete and Vova was entranced. He sat down at the piano afterwards and played some of Prokofiev's themes back by ear. As they left Dody said: 'You should get back to the piano and music Howard.' I felt I should too but didn't know quite how. However, I immediately sat down and wrote Prelude in B minor, a piano piece with a distinctly Russian tinge, as a sort of tribute to my meeting them. Dody’s remark sank in. Shortly afterwards I left the NFT and decided to try and make it as a freelance pianist, after a while becoming in-house keyboard player at EMI Abbey Road Recording Studios which led me towards opportunities for composition, and ultimately to my whole future career.
I didn't do anything with the Prelude at that time, but when I came to assemble 'Lifecycle' many years later, I transposed it into B flat minor and revised it somewhat so that it became Romanza - Andante con moto (1996). In 2013 it was recorded in this version as one of the works on the album 'Walking in the Air - the music of Howard Blake' performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy, released March 3rd 2014 on Decca Classics.
I only occasionally met the Ashkenazys after that memorable Eisenstein evening, but tried to get along to his London concerts. I had once suggested that he give an all-Skryabin concert and when he did so in the early seventies I made quite sure of being there. I was a devotee of Skryabin’s music and Vova’s performance was astounding. I went back stage to congratulate him and we got talking about Andre Previn, whom he was involved at that time and who had written some short pieces for him. Out of the blue he said: ‘Couldn’t you write some attractive short melodic pieces that audiences would enjoy?’ before being whisked off by the next fan in the queue. At that time I was living in the watermill and I went home on the train to Sussex that evening with my head buzzing with ideas. Once arrived I sat down and composed four pieces: Prelude in B minor, Nocturne in B major, Impromptu in E minor, Toccatina in E major - a sequence of pieces for the piano in specifically related keys (certainly one piece in each of the 12 major and 12 minor chromatic keys), which would eventually become ‘Lifecycle’, Although there are 24 works in the set, it is not a set of Preludes as written by Chopin, Scriabin and Rachmaninov, since there is a very bold structural key plan that binds them all together (described at the end of my note on Book Two, below. I was so proud it was for the world-renowned pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy and I was eventually to dedicate ‘Lifecycle’ to him. He was later to record much of my piano music for both one and two pianos as noted above.
Video shot and edited by Emmett Elvin.
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