Percy Grainger - Rambles and Reflections - Hyperion: CDA67279 - download

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Piers Lane manages to find something almost transcendent in these inspired re-creations. — BBC Music Magazine, June 2009 More…

Catalogue No: CDA67279
Label: Hyperion
Series: Instrumental Selections
Length: 75 minutes

Byrd: The Carman's Whistle

Album only

Piers Lane (piano)

Dowland: Now, O now, I needs must part

Album only

Piers Lane (piano)

Handel: Water Music: Hornpipe

Album only

Piers Lane (piano)

Scott, C: Handelian Rhapsody, Op.17 (W134)

Album only

(first recording)
Piers Lane (piano)

Delius: Air and Dance

Album only

Piers Lane (piano)

Stanford: Four Irish Dances

Album only

Piers Lane (piano)

Beautiful Fresh Flower

Album only

Chinese melody, Piers Lane (piano)

Strauss, R: Ramble on Love Duet (from Der Rosenkavalier)

Album only

Piers Lane (piano)

Grainger: Cradle Song (after Brahms)

Album only

Piers Lane (piano)

Fauré: Après un rêve, Op. 7 No. 1

Album only

Piers Lane (piano)

Fauré: Nell, Op. 18 No. 1

Album only

Piers Lane (piano)

Grainger: Paraphrase on Tchaikovsky's Flower Waltz

Album only

Piers Lane (piano)

Gershwin: The Man I Love

Album only

Piers Lane (piano)

Gershwin: Love Walked In

Album only

Piers Lane (piano)

Lullaby from Tribute to Foster

Album only

after Stephen Foster
Piers Lane (piano)

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About

Though he professed not to enjoy concert giving, Grainger was one of the greatest pianists of the earlier twentieth century and had an intimate understanding of the capabilities of the piano and how best to write for it. Though his compositional voice was unique he was therefore in many ways part of the great composer/pianist tradition stretching from Liszt to Busoni for whom the concert transcription was an essential part of their art. This recording contains the majority of Grainger's concert transcriptions of music by other composers (his few Bach arrangements are performed by Piers Lane on Bach Piano Transcriptions Volume 3). They range from the folk-inspired Irish Dances of Stanford, full of Grainger's characteristically extrovert piano writing, to the hyper-romantic lushness (and incredible pianistic sophistication) of his 'Ramble on Love' based on Richard Strauss's 'Rosenkavalier', all superbly played by Piers Lane who, like Grainger, certainly can't resist a 'good tune'!

Reviews

June 2009

Piers Lane manages to find something almost transcendent in these inspired re-creations.

2010

These short pieces range from simplicity to elaboration, from innocence to experience; most of them are homages to many of Grainger's friends and honour his trenchant belief in the sort of folk-melody that crosses all barriers. Wherever you turn you'll hear music 'like a breath of spring air' (to quote Barry Peter Ould's excellent note) and, more paradoxically, transcriptions that show Grainger's originality.
Cyril Scott's Handelian Rhapsody, receiving its first recording, may suggest Scott and Grainger more than Handel but it's an intriguing oddity and one which rises to an impressive grandeur. Stanford's Leprechaun is gentle and confiding rather than mischievous and the 'Ramble on Love' from Der Rosenkavalier is a sophisticated 'dish-up' of introspection and open-hearted virtuosity. All this music makes a wide variety of subtle and fierce demands, but Piers Lane, weaving his expertise with the lightest of touches, meets them with warmth and brio. Heartache, heart-ease or a tantalising mix of both all come within his style and everything is played with unfaltering command.
Grainger's 'woggles' (his idiosyncratic term for tremolandi) can rarely have sounded more convincing and the Tchaikovsky Waltz is taken by storm in a magnificent display of red-blooded virtuosity.
The recording and presentation are immaculate.
This is a dazzling, affectionate tribute to the composer and pianist who once said: 'To know a world of beauty and not to be able to spread the knowledge of it is agonising.'

Percy Grainger - Rambles and Reflections

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