A piano recital by Alexander Karpeyev of music by 12 Savilian composers
SOMM Recordings is pleased to announce the first commercial release of Composers at the Savile Club, pianist Alexander Karpeyev’s vivid and varied recital celebrating the 150th anniversary of the venerable London club.
Devised by Karpeyev and Jeremy Barlow (who will celebrate his 60th year as a Savile member in 2020 and also provides informative booklet notes) the recital includes music for solo piano by 11 leading Savile members to chart the development of British music from late romanticism to modernism – and back again.
Sam Pierce and Bradley Jones perform the two celebratory trumpet fanfares, by former Savilian Malcolm Arnold – his Savile Centenary Fanfare – and current Savile member, Julian Anderson – Fanfare: SC–GH composed for the sesquicentennial anniversary – that frame Karpeyev’s recital.
Among British luminaries featured are the composer-knights Edward Elgar (the lyrically atmospheric In Smyrna), William Walton (Façade’s delightful, dancing ‘Popular Song’), Malcolm Arnold (Variations on a Ukrainian Folk Song his most substantial work for solo piano) and Hubert Parry (the delicately antique Hands Across the Centuries Prelude).
Other notable names include Roger Quilter, Herbert Howells, Arthur Benjamin, William Alwyn and Henry Balfour Gardiner.
Two Irish dances by Dubliner Charles Villiers Stanford, the Romanian-born Francis Chagrin’s Suite Roumaine and three Musical Portraits by American Virgil Thomson complete a fascinating portrait of the Savile Club’s rich musical heritage.
Located in London’s Mayfair, the Savile Club was founded in 1868, its motto – “Sodalitas Convivium” – translating as “good fellowship and conviviality”. The Savile’s informality has attracted a host of distinguished names from the arts and sciences, including composers not featured on this recording Sir Arthur Bliss, William Lloyd Webber and Bernard Hermann and 17 Nobel Prize winners, among them poets Rudyard Kipling and WB Yeats, and physicists Ernest Rutherford and John Cockcroft.
On This Recording
- Fanfare: SC-GH* 2:08
- Prelude from Hands Across the Centuries 2:13
- In a Gondola (Two Impressions, Op.19) 3:14
- Procession, Op.36 3:56
- I Allegro con spirito 1:05
- II Moderato 2:16
- III Allegro 1:21
- Variations on a Ukrainian Folk Song, Op.9 14:52
- Scherzino 2:21
- Night Thoughts 4:51
- Round and Round (Dominique Nabokov) 0:53
- Singing a Song (Christopher Cox) 1:10
- Wide Awake (Bill Katz) 0:58
- Popular Song (Façade, arr. Roy Douglas) 2:27
- Shepherd Fennel’s Dance 5:08
- In Smyrna 4:28
- Serenade in G 2:14
- A Reel 4:44
- Leprechaun’s Dance 3:40
- Savile Centenary Fanfare*
Julian Anderson
Charles Hubert Parry
Roger Quilter
Herbert Howells
Francis Chagrin: Suite Roumaine
Malcolm Arnold
Arthur Benjamin
William Alwyn
Virgil Thomson: Nineteen Portraits, 1981 [3:01]
William Walton
Henry Balfour Gardiner
Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Charles Villiers Stanford: Four Irish Dances, Op.89, arr. Percy Grainger
Malcolm Arnold
Reviews:
“Karpeyev is a major artist in what is clearly a labour of love.” Limelight Magazine, Australia (2019)
“Sound and notes are superb”. Becker, American Record Guide (2020)
Album of the Week on Classical California Radio!
“It was recorded attractively in the Royal Academy of Music and is not stamped ‘Savile Club members only’. It makes instead for a neat little programme of (mostly) British repertoire that, because of its occasional nature, will be little-known but greatly enjoyed.” —Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International
“a recital eminently worth investigating” —Terry Blain, BBC Music Magazine – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Recording Rating!
