Ronald Stevenson: Piano Music, Volume Five
The personal generosity that made the Scottish composer Ronald Stevenson (1928–2015) such a warm and vibrant character extended also to his writing-desk: around a quarter of his enormous output is given over to transcriptions, mostly for piano, of music by other composers. Here he pays homage to three earlier colleagues whose music he particularly esteemed: Purcell, Delius and van Dieren. Stevenson described his version of Van Dieren’s String Quartet No. 5 (1931) as ‘transcribed as a piano sonata (which B. v. D. never composed)’ – and thus it became the piano sonata which Stevenson himself never composed. The album ends with Stevenson’s brief but achingly beautiful harmonisation of Purcell’s The Queen’s Dolour – as exquisite an example of the transcriber’s art as anyone could wish.
Christopher Guild, piano
Listen To This Recording:
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HENRY PURCELL
- Toccata (1955)
- Hornpipe (1995)
- Ground in C minor
- Ground in E flat minor
- Ground in D minor
- No. 1 Dance
- No. 2 Tune from ‘Brigg Fair’
- No. 3 La Calinda
- No. 4 Serenade
- No. 5 The Cuckoo
- No. 6 Late Swallows
- No. 7 Intermezzo
- No. 8 Tune from String Quartet
- No. 9 Tune from Violin Sonata No. 2
- No. 10 Themes from ‘Song of the High Hills’
- Little Jazz Variations on Purcell’s ‘New Scotch Tune’ (1964, rev. 1975)
- I Con moto ben sostenuto
- II Molto tranquillo
- III Impetuosamente
- IV Con spirito
- V Adagio cantando
- VI Finale: Allegro con grazia
- Weep You No More, Sad Fountains
- Spring Song of the Birds
- The Queen’s Dolour – A Farewell (1959)
Purcell: Three Grounds (1995)
FREDERICK DELIUS
The Young Pianist’s Delius (1962/c. 2005)*
RONALD STEVENSON
BERNARD VAN DIEREN
String Quartet No. 5 (c. 1925, rev. 1931; transcr. c. 1948–1987)*
Weep You No More, Sad Fountains (publ. 1925; transcr. 1951)
Spring Song of the Birds (1925, transcr. 1987)
HENRY PURCELL
* FIRST RECORDINGS
MusicWeb International :
‘Christopher Guild has created a well-considered and perfectly poised recital. […] The sound reproduction is superb.’
—John France, MusicWeb International