Phillip Ramey: Piano Music, Volume Four: 1959-2011

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Catalogue No: TOCC0153
EAN/UPC: 5060113441539
Release Date: 2013-03-04
Composer: Phillip Ramey
Artists: Stephen Gosling

The piano music of the American composer Phillip Ramey (born in 1939) is rooted in the motoric athleticism of Prokofiev and Bartók, tempered with sober lyricism, spicy modernist dissonance and a fresh approach to the grand Romantic gesture. This fourth Toccata Classics album includes the virtuosic Cossack Variations, the mercurial Epigrams, Book Two and Lament for Richard III, a dramatic character-study of a famous historical villain. Two sonatas add further substance to a varied programme: No. 3, serially inflected and culminating in a barbaric finale; and No. 7, infused with declamatory rhetoric, quirky rhythm and engaging melody.

Stephen Gosling, piano

Listen To This Recording:

    Incantations (1960; rev. 1982)

  1. I Allegro
  2. II Andante
  3. III Con moto
  4. Cossack Variations (1981/85)

  5. Theme (Moderato)
  6. Variation 1 (L’istesso tempo)
  7. Variation 2 (Allegretto)
  8. Variation 3 (Allegro)
  9. Variation 4 (Allegro moderato)
  10. Variation 5 (Moderato)
  11. Variation 6 (Adagio)
  12. Variation 7 (Moderato con moto)
  13. Variation 8 (Allegro con spirito)
  14. Variation 9 (Vivace)
  15. Variation 10 (Andante lirico)
  16. Variation 11 (Vivace)
  17. Variation 12 (Andante)
  18. Variation 13 (Andante maestoso)
  19. Three Early Preludes (1959; rev. 1996)

  20. I Andante lugubrioso
  21. II Adagio enigmatico
  22. III Allegro giocoso
  23. Piano Sonata No. 3 (1968; rev. 2010)

  24. I Moderato austero
  25. II Andante meditativo
  26. III Allegro demonico
  27. Epigrams, Book Two (1986)

  28. I Calm
  29. II Melancholy
  30. III Scornful
  31. IV Desolate
  32. V Demonic
  33. VI Solemn
  34. VII Grandiose
  35. VIII Lyrical
  36. IX Angry
  37. Lament for Richard III (2001)
  38. Piano Sonata No. 7 (2010–11)

  39. I Adagio con moto; Scherzando; Alla marcia; Tempo I
  40. II Adagio lirico
  41. III Andante; Presto; Allegro moderato; Presto

1 review for Phillip Ramey: Piano Music, Volume Four: 1959-2011

  1. :

    ‘Ramey is most fortunate in having a commentator of Folkman’s caliber to discuss his music in some depth, and in having a pianist whose renditions he can endorse as “absolute perfection.” Therefore one can state confidently that this release, along with its predecessors, makes the best possible case for Phillip Ramey as a composer of considerable stature.’

    —Walter Simmons, Fanfare Magazine September/October 2013

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