Peter Tranchell: Twice a Kiss and Other Works
Peter Tranchell (1922–93) spent most of his life at Cambridge, first as a student and then as a member of staff. His compositions reflect a range of musical interests and include large-scale works as well as more intimate pieces composed for the college choir and concerts. He had a lively sense of fun, as this album makes clear, and a talent for music with a lighter touch. Here two choral works and a piano suite bridge the whimsical and the serious. The ‘operetta’ Twice a Kiss is a wittily arch mock-Restoration comedy with music and text that succeeded in entertaining the audience and performers at its first performance in Cambridge in 1955, its revival there in 1982 and the performance in London in 2026 at which this recording was made. Maho Ishizaka’s Tickle the Keys, the winning entry in the 2025 Peter Tranchell Foundation Composition Prize, was premiered in the same concert.
Jennifer France, soprano
Sophie Bevan, soprano
Hilary Summers, contralto
James Gilchrist, tenor
Henry Waddington, baritone
Christopher Purves, bass
Imperial College Chamber Choir
Michael Papadopoulos, conductor
Piers Lane, piano
Tom Winpenny, organ
David Doidge, piano
Listen To This Recording:
Two Songs for Chamber Choir
- The Dog that Sat (1967, arr. 1967)* (3:02)
- No More of Thee and Me (1978) (3:59)
Seven Pieces in Alphabetical Order (1947, rev. 1960) (9:23)
- C Peacock: Lento (1:58)
- D Rainy Season Bird: Allegro brilliante (1:08)
- E Goat: Allegretto (1:10)
- F Craine: Moderato (1:35)
- G Cuckoo: Allegro misterioso (1:14)
- A Frog: Andante (0:37)
- B Elephant: Pomposo (1:41)
Maho Ishizaka
- Tickle the Keys (2025) (4:22)
Twice a Kiss: Comic Opera in One Act (1955) (52:40)
- Allegro di molto (2:33)
- ‘Another party, another suitor’ – (2:08)
- ‘Seven weeks ago’ (2:36)
- ‘Sir Robert!’ ‘Ah, Sarah!’ (3:15)
- ‘Sir Peter has rank’ (0:55)
- ‘If merry you’d be rockon’d’ (1:44)
- ‘It’s gone!’ (2:25)
- ‘Sir Robert! This is singular behaviour!’ – (0:57)
- ‘Affairs i’faith!’ (2″23)
- ‘Sir Peter Parallel, ma’am’ (4:58)
- “Lud, sir’ (4:00)
- ‘Mr Honeywood is coming up’ (2:00)
- ‘If you’re anxious for gains’ (3:55)
- ‘How do I get away’ (2:05)
- ‘Your Majesty’ (4:47)
- ‘Your pardon, madam’ (4:10)
- ‘My play?’ (2:34)
- ‘Good advice will suffice’ (5:15)
First Recordings Except * First Digital Recording
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