Celebrating 25 Years of Excellence

Lockdown Blues

£6.00£14.00

Label:
Catalogue No: SOMMCD 0644
Release Date: 2021-11-19
Number of Discs: 1
EAN/UPC: 748871064423
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Composers: , , , , , , , , ,
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Liner Notes
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SOMM Recordings announces the perfect escape from Lockdown Blues with a collection of appealing piano miniatures compiled and performed by Peter Dickinson to chase all your cares away.

Lockdown Blues includes soothing masterpieces by Erik Satie (Trois Gnossiennes, Trois Gymnopédies), Francis Poulenc (Bal fantôme, Pastourelle) and Edward MacDowell (To a Wild Rose), alongside Eugene Goossens’ melancholic Lament for a Departed Doll and Samuel Barber’s valedictory Canzonetta. There is whimsy in George Gershwin’s Three-Quarter Blues (familiar to British audiences as the theme to radio and television’s After Henry) and Who Cares? from the musical Of Thee I Sing.

Of interest are 12 iconic jazz tunes by Duke Ellington. Heard here in their original sheet-music versions, they are pure Ellington, the product of a sophisticated composer. Among featured classic songs are Solitude, Don’t Get Around Much AnymoreMood Indigo and It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got That Swing).

In his introduction, renowned broadcaster and writer Humphrey Burton describes Lockdown Blues as ‘a delightful hour of discovery’, hailing the Ellington selections as ‘a real find that will surely be much anthologised long after Lockdown has been forgotten’.

The disc is completed by three pieces by Dickinson – the titular Lockdown Blues, Freda’s Blues and Blue Rose, a take on MacDowell’s To a Wild Rose – together with Constant Lambert’s Elegiac Blues, Lennox Berkeley’s Prelude VI and John Cage’s Satie-influenced In a Landscape.

Peter Dickinson’s career as a pianist has largely been in recitals, broadcasts and recordings with his sister, mezzo Meriel Dickinson, and he has worked with many other performers.

Dickinson’s Paraphrase II is included on Nathan Williamson’s 20th-century British piano music collection, Colour and Light (SOMMCD 0196) and was praised by the British Music Society as ‘a Theme with six hugely contrasting variations exploring the outer edges of tonality in a brilliant, structurally refined way’.

On This Recording

    Peter Dickinson (b.1934)
  1. Freda’s Blues
  2. Edward MacDowell (1860-1908)

    Woodland Sketches, Op.51 No.1

  3. To a Wild Rose
  4. Peter Dickinson
  5. Blue Rose
  6. Constant Lambert (1905-51)
  7. Elegiac Blues
  8. Peter Dickinson
  9. Lockdown Blues
  10. Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)

    Huit Nocturnes, Fp56

  11. Nocturne in C minor, ‘Bal fantôme’
  12. Samuel Barber (1910-81)
  13. Canzonetta (arr. Peter Dickinson)*
  14. Lennox Berkeley (1903-81)

    Six Preludes, Op.23 No.6

  15. Andante
  16. George Gershwin (1898-1937)
  17. Three-Quarter Blues (Irish Waltz)
  18. Francis Poulenc (1899-1963)
  19. Pastourelle
  20. Erik Satie (1866-1925)

    Trois Gnossiennes

  21. I. Lent
  22. II. Avec étonnement
  23. III. Lent
  24. George Gershwin
  25. Who Cares?
  26. Eugene Goossens (1893-1962)

    Kaleidoscope, Op.18

  27. Lament for a Departed Doll
  28. Erik Satie

    Trois Gymnopédies

  29. I. Lent et douloureux
  30. II. Lent et triste
  31. III. Lent et grave
  32. Edward Kennedy ‘Duke’ Ellington (1899-1974)

    Twelve Melodies arr. Peter Dickinson*

  33. It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got That Swing)
  34. Solitude
  35. Don’t Get Around Much Anymore
  36. Lost in Meditation
  37. I Never Felt This Way Before
  38. Sophisticated Lady
  39. In a Sentimental Mood
  40. Azure
  41. Do Nothin’ till You Hear from Me
  42. Mood Indigo
  43. Day Dream
  44. Prelude to a Kiss
  45. John Cage (1912-92)
  46. In a Landscape
* First Recordings

Reviews:

“Another attractive release from this ever-enterprising label… The effects of the pandemic have led to a plethora of solo piano albums and this, with the Ellington and its relaxing selection, rates highly among them.” —Peter Burt, London Light Music


“Peter Dickinson’s superb piano playing, and artistry has produced an album of (mostly) soothing pieces, with more than a hint of jazz and blues.… The liner notes for this new CD are ideal. … often cool and always captivating. It should be savoured” —John France, MusicWeb International