Review: Joanna MacGregor, St. George’s – ‘An extraordinary evening from one of our most restless musical voices’

You’ll find Joanna MacGregor’s music tucked away in the quietly reserved corner of the record shop marked ‘Classical’. Her achievements and plaudits from that area of music are legion.

Her background notes in tonight’s programme could make us lesser mortals feel a distinct sense of under achievement – feted concert pianist, curator, conductor. Head of piano at Royal Academy of Music, honorary doctorates all over the place and a CBE along the way.

Throughout this journey of high musicianship her radical spirit has led her beyond the standard classical repertoire into daring and challenging new territories.

Her recordings of Bach and Beethoven are much loved and highly regarded, but she has equally been at home exploring the worlds of John Cage, Moondog, the odd Tom Waits or Nick Cave tune and championing little known jazzers from South Africa.

Tonight she has programmed a recital of female composers from the last century. It’s a packed evening of shortish pieces, the pace only broken by her taking the time to gently guide her audience through the work of these under heard women.

In her childhood she regularly played in her local evangelical church and tonight’s performance is drenched in the gospel songs and blues she learnt in those early days.

You may have the music of Miles, Monk, Charlie Parker and Diz Gillespie somewhere in your collection. Well, Mary Lou Williams taught them all.

MacGregor’s strident, rhythmic interpretation of three pieces reach a stomping boogie whilst also finding a space for a knowing wit. Later she explores her Ghost of Love, a deeper more internal song, dissonant and profoundly moving.

She breaks the mood with a couple of visits to Sofia Gubaidulina’s Musical Toys. Tiny pieces, written in the 1960s based on Russian Folk tales, written to soothe her child to sleep. They are playful, strikingly eccentric and apparently pretty tricky to play.

The centrepiece is a selection of gospel tunes that she has explored with Bristol’s Andy Sheppard in the past. Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child opens with her caressing the blues from her keyboard.

Lowside Blues drive has foot stomps for punctuation. She adds percussive drama all over and when she hits the barrel house of Ain’t No Grave Gonna Hold My Body Down, she is absolutely flying.

MacGregor ends with a set of arrangements in homage to Nina Simone. She saw Simone perform at Ronnie Scott’s in her teenage years and Simone’s music has been a constant companion since. MacGregor’s interpretations are remarkable.

She equally finds the Bach and Liszt from Simone’s early formal classical education alongside the passionate drama of her civil rights spirituals. The St George’s audience, visibly moved, rise to meet her in appreciation.

She sends us on her way with a setting of Down by The Riverside. It has been an extraordinary evening of the highest technique and real passion from one of our most restless musical voices. A real joy.

Main photo: Martin Siddorn

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