Ronald Stevenson: Piano Music, Volume Five

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Catalogue No: TOCC0606
EAN/UPC: 5060113446060
Release Date: 2021-05-07
Composer: Ronald Stevenson
Artists: Christopher Guild

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:

    HENRY PURCELL

  1. Toccata (1955)
  2. Hornpipe (1995)
  3. Purcell: Three Grounds (1995)

  4. Ground in C minor
  5. Ground in E flat minor
  6. Ground in D minor
  7. FREDERICK DELIUS
    The Young Pianist’s Delius (1962/c. 2005)*

  8. No. 1 Dance
  9. No. 2 Tune from ‘Brigg Fair’
  10. No. 3 La Calinda
  11. No. 4 Serenade
  12. No. 5 The Cuckoo
  13. No. 6 Late Swallows
  14. No. 7 Intermezzo
  15. No. 8 Tune from String Quartet
  16. No. 9 Tune from Violin Sonata No. 2
  17. No. 10 Themes from ‘Song of the High Hills’
  18. RONALD STEVENSON

  19. Little Jazz Variations on Purcell’s ‘New Scotch Tune’ (1964, rev. 1975)
  20. BERNARD VAN DIEREN
    String Quartet No. 5 (c. 1925, rev. 1931; transcr. c. 1948–1987)*

  21. I Con moto ben sostenuto
  22. II Molto tranquillo
  23. III Impetuosamente
  24. IV Con spirito
  25. V Adagio cantando
  26. VI Finale: Allegro con grazia
  27. Weep You No More, Sad Fountains (publ. 1925; transcr. 1951)

  28. Weep You No More, Sad Fountains
  29. Spring Song of the Birds (1925, transcr. 1987)

  30. Spring Song of the Birds
  31. HENRY PURCELL

  32. The Queen’s Dolour – A Farewell (1959)

* FIRST RECORDINGS

1 review for Ronald Stevenson: Piano Music, Volume Five

  1. :

    ‘Christopher Guild has created a well-considered and perfectly poised recital. […] The sound reproduction is superb.’

    —John France, MusicWeb International

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