SOMM Recordings is pleased to announce the release of Mirage, a recital of piano music by Stephen Dodgson performed by Osman Tack in his impressive label debut.
Featuring 22 first recordings, Mirage is the third volume in a series marking the 10th anniversary of Dodgson’s death in 2013, and celebrates a composer of “urbane and civilised” music, as Robert Matthew-Walker describes it in his informative booklet notes.
The recital spans seven decades from 1956’s Eight Fanciful Pieces – “a judiciously varied suite… bound by the directness of utterance that so distinguished Dodgson’s music” – to his second set of Six Bagatelles composed in 2005 when “his inspiration burned brightly in his eighties”.
Also included are the “vastly impressive” Piano Sonata No. 7 (Dodgson’s last) from 2003; the “significant” Three Impromptus (1962, revised 1985), and the varied, impressionistic Four Moods of the Wind Suite (1968).
A bonus track, the Rondo in A-Flat from 1953, will be available for downloading on digital platforms.
Osman Tack is a former Chandos Young Musician of the Year who has performed throughout the UK and internationally as a soloist, accompanist and chamber musician (having won the Pro-Corda Festival competition).
Dodgson’s Songs Volume 1, The Peasant Poet (SOMMCD 0659) was hailed by Opera Today as “an incredibly interesting and engaging disc… done excellent service by all the performers”. Of Volume 2, The Distances Between (SOMMCD 0673), the British Music Society said “the performances (by some prestigious names) and the warm, lifelike recording are impeccable”. SOMM’s championing of British song includes Stanford’s Children’s Songs (SOMMCD 0655), “fairly and squarely in the great English song tradition” (MusicWeb International), and Roderick Williams and Susie Allan’s Celebrating English Song (SOMMCD 0177), lauded by Gramophone as “a treat”, and Somervell’s A Shropshire Lad and Maud (SOMMCD 0615), “performances of much beauty, empathy and sensitivity”(British Music Society).
On This Recording
Eight Fanciful Pieces (22:16)
- No. 1, A Leaf in the River* (2:21)
- No. 2, Shrovetide Procession* (2:28)
- No. 3, Il Zoppo (2:03)
- No. 4, The Storm Comes and Passes (3:47)
- No. 5, Crazy Kate (3:16)
- No. 6, Mirage (2:05)
- No. 7, Dancers (2:56)
- No. 8, When all is Quiet (3:20)
Four Moods of the Wind (10:41)
- No. 1, Molto Moderato (2:46)
- No. 2, Agitato (1:45)
- No. 3, Flessibile e drammatico (3:19)
- No. 4, Poco allegro (2:51)
Three Impromptus (12:17)
- No. 1, Allegro (5:48)
- No. 2, Andante semplice (3:48)
- No. 3, Allegretto (2:41)
Piano Sonata No. 7 'The Loddon' (20:29)
- I. Allegro moderato (5:35)
- II. Poco adagio (5:59)
- III. Allegro vivace – Allegretto – Allegro vivace (8:55)
Six Bagatelles (Set 2) (13:18)
- No. 1, Highly Expressive but Gentle (2:42)*
- No. 2, Lazy Pace; Undulating and Songful (1:34)*
- No. 3, Cryptic and Playful (1:24)
- No. 4, Erratic in Motion; Melodramatic (2:22)
- No. 5, Hollow and Stealthy (2:34)
- No. 6, Moto Perpetuo; Airy and Sparkling (2:42)
- Rondo in A-Flat (Available Digitally Only)
All except * First Recordings
Osman Tack, piano
