Celebrating 25 Years of Excellence

Echoes of Land & Sea

£6.00£17.00

Label:
Catalogue No: SOMMCD 0174
Release Date: 2017-09-01
Number of Discs: 1
EAN/UPC: 748871017429
Artists:
Composers: , , , ,
Genre:
Period:
Liner Notes
Share:

This cleverly planned new recital represents a uniquely valuable addition to the catalogue and focuses attention on English piano music which is less well known but no less delectable. Our programme ranges from some of the most famous names in music to those best-known in other areas of the art – and has been carefully chosen to present a uniquely fascinating conspectus of piano music by British composers of the last 100 years.

There are such rarities as Benjamin Britten’s brilliant early suite ‘Holiday Diary’, the great composer in lighter mood, and the magnificent virtuoso set of Six Studies for Piano by Kenneth Leighton, alongside a rare collection of Impressionist pieces by Gustav Holst – showing him to be as much a master of the keyboard as his ‘Planets’ suite is of the orchestra. John Ireland (Britten’s teacher) is represented by his haunting Ballade of London Nights, and we have a significant premiere recording of Ireland’s most famous song – Sea Fever – arranged for solo piano by Roderick Williams, best-known as one of the finest of all living British singers, now appearing on disc in a new light. Both the world premiere Goodwood-by-the-Sea and the piano arrangement of Sea Fever were written by Roderick Williams especially for Maria Marchant and dedicated to her. Ronald Stevenson’s ‘Peter Grimes Fantasy’ takes us back to Benjamin Britten – a wonderful homage from one major British composer to another. Also included here, is another valuable first recording, Vally Lasker’s arrangement of Holst’s delightful Brook Green Suite. Lasker taught music at St Paul’s Girls’ School, Hammersmith as assistant to Holst, who was also head of music. She has arranged several of Holst’s as well as Vaughan Williams’s works for piano.

On This Recording

  1. Britten – Holiday Diary Op. 5 - 1. Early Morning Bathe
  2. Britten – Holiday Diary Op. 5 - 2. Sailing
  3. Britten – Holiday Diary Op. 5 - 3. Fun-Fair
  4. Britten – Holiday Diary Op. 5 - 4. Night
  5. Stevenson – Peter Grimes Fantasy
  6. Ireland – Ballade of London Nights
  7. Ireland – Sea Fever transcribed freely by Roderick Williams
  8. Roderick Williams – Goodwood by the Sea
  9. Leighton – Six Studies Op. 56 - 1. Adagio molto
  10. Leighton – Six Studies Op. 56 - 2. Allegro molto e secco, molto ritmico
  11. Leighton – Six Studies Op. 56 - 3. Adagio molto, misterioso ma molto espressivo
  12. Leighton – Six Studies Op. 56 - 4. Allegro leggiero e capriccioso
  13. Leighton – Six Studies Op. 56 - 5. Allegro molto, nervoso
  14. Leighton – Six Studies Op. 56 - 6. Presto con bravura 3:37
  15. Holst – Toccata
  16. Holst – Chrissemas Day in the Morning
  17. Holst – O! I Hae Seen The Roses Blaw
  18. Holst – The Shoemakker
  19. Holst – Nocturne
  20. Holst – Jig
  21. Holst – Brook Green Suite 1. Prelude
  22. Holst – Brook Green Suite 2. Air
  23. Holst - Brook Green Suite 3. Dance