Richard Anthony Jay: Imperfect Beauty
Reviewed By: Lisa Torem

Somerset composer, Richard Anthony Jay, serves up an ambitious follow-up to his 2009, eleven-track, debut, ‘This is What I Live For.’ There, he ignited his relationship with the Halle orchestra and Davy Spillane, and unearthed the intoxicating ‘Fragile’ and cinematic ‘Milan.’ Many of Jay’s contemporary, piano-driven arrangements draw parallels to pieces like Max Richter’s ‘Ember’ and Ludovico Einaudi’s ‘Nuvole Bianche.’

His newest release, ironically entitled ‘Imperfect Beauty’, is pretty perfect. It is a piano music lover’s dream-come-true. Jay works alongside the Halle orchestra, for a second time, making splendid use of their wealth of timbres.

Jay is a self-taught composer; still, his work is sophisticated. With an uncanny ear and extreme sensitivity to the boundaries of each instrument he oversees, he plays compositional hardball with the giants.

That said, ‘Imperfect Beauty’ is flawless. ‘In Winter’ surges forward with strident, glorious melodies.

‘The Tailor’ abounds with industrial percussion and shimmering strings; the result brilliantly shines.

‘Time’, like a Bach fugue, features two opposing, melodic forces that make invincible statements; ear candy for the lover of precise symmetry.

‘Silence’ with simmering dissonance and an erratic time-signature heralds an old-world charm. It builds, deliriously and mysteriously, upwards.

The striking arpeggios of ‘Going Solo’ are the meat and potatoes of this lavish dish. Hypnotic melodies dip and collide. Smartly, simple ‘Rain on the Round Window’ is pleasantly reminiscent of French genius Eric Satie’s, carnival-like gymnopedies – and it is extraordinarily executed.

One hopeful melody rises above an accelerating, sonic storm; like free-floating, cirrus clouds come to life. ‘Boubat’ paints a picture of an enormous, orchestral sky. It also clocks in at more than five minutes, though, truthfully, it goes by in a flash.

‘Epilogue’ similar in simple beauty to ‘Rain on the Round Window’, soothes like a beloved psalm. Essentially, a mournful piano painstakingly inches its way through time, and, gradually, it is swept up by galloping strings. Haunting, halting and bittersweet, ‘Epilogue’ is a palpable closer. ‘Imperfect Beauty’ slows down our maddening world into manageable, meditative measures.

http://www.thecrackmagazine.com/index.php?section=1&category=16&page=3106

I recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by John Diliberto at Echoes, for radio broadcast in the U.S and also online. We spoke for about an hour on the phone and John managed to condense it down to about 8 minutes :)

You can listen to it here:

Echoes Interview with Richard Anthony Jay by Richard Anthony Jay

I was recently asked to put together a playlist of my ten favourite Classical pieces, by Dilettante Music for its Celebrity Playlists section. So, I thought I’d share it here with you.

I also put together a Spotify playlist which you can access here, though you’ll need Spotify installed on your machine. Michael Nyman’s 3rd String Quartet isn’t on Spotify so I couldn’t include that.

1) Purcell – Dido And Aenas ‘When I Am Laid In Earth’ – “Hard to believe it’s over 300 years old, yet still one of the greatest ever aria’s … it’s timeless”

2) Kreisler – Praeludium et Allegro – “Could one piece of music have any more ideas in it !? The energy of this is so infectious, I never tire of listening to it”

3) Piazzolla – Oblivion – “Piazzolla seemed to effortlessly move between genres, so much so that some may even question whether any of his work is classical. This piece, one of his most well-known, has been played in so many different ways, by so many different performers I’m not even sure what it is anymore …. other than a simply stunning, intensely emotional piece”

4) Borodin – String Quartets – “The string quartet is both a joy to write for and to listen to and there are few works for it as lyrical as Borodin’s two quartets. I’m going to cheat, and call these one work, as they are best listened to back-to-back for an hour of bliss !”

5) Mozart – Requiem – “The counterpoint in the ‘Domine Jesu’, between the four soloists and then the choir, is simply awe-inspiring. I remember seeing this performed at St.Paul’s Cathedral in London during the bicentenial of his death. Just an amazing experience.”

6) Saint-Saens – The Swan – “The Cello has always been my favourite lead instrument and I write for it as often as I can. This must have been one of the first works I heard for cello and piano, when I saw it performed as a solo ballet at Covent Garden many years ago. I love it for remaining fragile to the end, avoiding a big climax”

7) Max Richter – On The Nature of Daylight – “There are a couple of pieces of his that I could have chosen, but I just love the way this one builds”

8) Alexander Balanescu – No Time Before Time – “A strict tempo, repetitive rhythms and simple, catchy top-line melodies. Manages to bridge the gap between classical & popular music without dumbing down or turning to pastiche”

9) Philip Glass – Orphee’s Bedroom from Orphee Suite – “It’s taken me years to get into Philip Glass. This one has such a simple beauty that I wish I’d heard it years ago”

10) Michael Nyman – String Quartet no.3 – “I remember when I first heard Michael Nyman, in the early 1990′s, with his score to the amazing French film “Monsieur Hire”. I was about 18 and like a lot of teenagers had never felt much affinity with Classical music. This was the start of my exploration of classical music, in all it’s forms”

NB: The observant amongst you will notice that when Dilettante published the above piece, they didn’t include Max Richter – so it ended up being my top 9. Perhaps they didn’t feel Max Richter was entirely classical ?