John R. Williamson was born in 1929 in Manchester. He studied composition under Richard Hall and piano with Hedwig Stein at the Royal Manchester College of Music. He also studied briefly with Lennox Berkeley. Since then he has taught music in a variety of schools and colleges in England and Wales. His compositions include five piano concerti, an extensive amount of solo piano music, twenty five sonatas for many combinations, chamber music, orchestral pieces, a symphony and a ‘Cello Concerto.

In the realm of song, his settings of Housman, and other poets, include some 140 songs, with almost 50 of them released on the Dunelm Records label. Volumes 1 & 2 of his Piano Music were originally released also on Dunelm, but their availability now on Divine Art, makes them generally available for the first time. Volume 3 has not been issued previously.

The CD booklets contain detailed notes on each piece by the composer.

“Murray McLachlan is a pianist with a virtuoso technique and a sure sense of line. His timing and phrasing are impeccable, and his tone – full but unforced in the powerful passages, gentle and restrained in the more lyrical – is a perpetual delight” (BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE)