John Ireland Piano Music

REAM.3112 MONO ADD MONO 3CDs JOHN IRELAND (1879-1962) The Piano Music John DISC THREE *** Two Pieces 13 Merry Andrew (2’55”) 1 1 April (3’58”) Three Pastels Ireland 2 2 Bergomask (3’23”) 14 1 A Grecian Lad (3’00”) In those Days 15 2 The Boy Bishop (3’57”) 3 1 Meridian (3’52”) 16 3 Puck ’s Birthday (1’42”) Piano 4 2 Daydream (3’35”) 17 Spring will not wait (4’06”) Four Preludes 18 Ballade of London Nights (7’20”) 5 1 The Undertone (4’01”) Sea Idyll Music 6 2 Obsession (2’20”) 19 1 Poco andante (3’57”) 7 3 The Holy Boy (2’56”) 20 2 Allegro appassionato (4’26”) Alan 8 4 Fire of Spring (1’49”) 21 3 Andante mesto (3’44”) 9 The Almond Trees (4’06”) (78’35”) 10 Summer Evening (4’13”) Rowlands 11 Prelude in E-flat (5’13”) Alan Rowlands, piano 12 Columbine (3’52”) The above individual timings will normally each include two pauses. One before the beginning of each movement or work, and one after the end. *ൿ 1960 ** ൿ 1964 *** ൿ 1970 The copyright in these sound recordings is owned by Lyrita Recorded Edition, England This compilation and digital remastering ൿ 2008 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England © 2008 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England. Made in the UK LYRITA RECORDED EDITION. Produced under an exclusive license from Lyrita by Wyastone Estate Ltd, PO Box 87, Monmouth, NP25 3WX, UK JOHN IRELAND (1879-1962) The Piano Music DISC TWO ** 1 Ballade (9’35”) Two Pieces 2 1 February’s Child (5’20”) 3 2 Aubade (3’19”) Piano Sonata 4 1st movement: Allegro moderato (6’34”) 5 2nd movement: Non troppo lento (11’29”) 6 3rd movement: Con moto moderato (7’54”) 7 The Towing-Path (4’32”) 8 The Darkened Valley (3’54”) 9 Rhapsody (9’00”) 10 Month’s Mind (5’19”) Decorations 11 1 The Island Spell (3’27”) 12 2 Moon-glade (2’50”) 13 3 The Scarlet Ceremonies (3’09”) (76’27”) 15 A Reminiscence by Alan Rowlands I first heard the name of John Ireland from my father, who knew some of his songs and JOHN IRELAND (1879-1962) had broadcast Twilight Night with the choral group he conducted in Swansea before the War. At that time a great family friend was the composer Percy Turnbull and it was he The Piano Music who later introduced me to Ireland’s piano music, which I immediately fell in love with. Percy had been with Ireland in his beloved Channel Islands in 1940; he could imitate his DISC ONE * distinctively querulous voice and regaled us with many stories. Ireland had wanted to London Pieces 10 Soliloquy (3’30”) settle on Guernsey but was forced to leave at 24 hours’ notice that June owing to the imminence of the German invasion. He, John Longmire and Turnbull had managed to 1 1 Chelsea Reach (7’21”) 11 On a Birthday Morning (3’26”) get on one of the last boats and endured a hazardous journey to Weymouth, where the 2 2 Ragamuffin (2’19”) 12 Equinox (2’19”) composer arrived in a highly nervous state, the unfinished manuscript of Sarnia among 3 3 Soho Forenoons (3’04”) his few possessions. Percy told me that Longmire went to the Captain and said of Sarnia – An Island Sequence Ireland, ‘he’s mad, you know’, thereby enabling the composer to leave the boat ahead of Greenways – Three Lyric Pieces 13 1 Le Catioroc (6’53”) the normal disembarkation procedures. 4 1 The Cherry Trees (2’46”) In 1947 I went up to Oxford ostensibly to study chemistry, but spending a great 14 2 In a May Morning (7’07”) 5 2 Cypress (3’09”) deal of my time enjoying the varied musical life of the University. I played Ireland’s 15 3 Song of the Springtides (6’57”) Sonata and Sarnia at the Holywell Music Room, having learnt them mostly at 6 3 The Palm and May (3’05”) Two Pieces Taphouse’s music studios, for which one then paid 1s 6d per hour about 8p. My interest Sonatina in science rapidly declined and after seven years Dr Thomas Armstrong (I used to play 16 1 For Remembrance (3’39”) for the Bach Choir) persuaded my father that I could make a go of it in music. So I 7 1st movement: Moderato (4’45”) 17 2 Amberley Wild Brooks (3’30”) entered the Royal College of Music at the age of 26, having not had a piano lesson since 8 2nd movement: Quasi lento (3’11”) the age of 16. There I studied Sonata and Sarnia again with Angus Morrison and it was 9 3rd movement: Rondo Ritmico, (69’41”) he who suggested that Ireland might like to hear me play these works and wrote to him non troppo allegro (2’31”) about me. I shall not easily forget my first meeting with Ireland at his windmill home in Sussex. He was 78 and I a nervous 28 year-old who had never met someone so distinguished before. Being a little hard of hearing, he stood close to my chair and quizzed me extensively about my musical tastes; this went well until I expressed my enthusiasm for Vaughan Williams’s 6th Symphony — that rather warlike work — when he immediately cut in with, ‘I detest that’. Disconcerted, I felt I must have chosen the wrong symphony and began to eulogise the supremely peaceful 5th, but he said again, ‘I detest that’, in exactly the same tone of voice. So it seemed that there were certain subjects it was better to avoid. We had lunch and then tea — both lengthy conversational 3 meals — and I wondered if I would ever be asked to play. When the moment came, I www.lyrita.co.uk essayed Sarnia and handed a pencil to Dr Ireland (he liked to be called Dr Ireland) with Notes ©1960, 1964 & 1970 Lyrita Recorded Edition, England the suggestion that he write his comments in the score. But I had not reckoned with the noise of the pencil and was soon disconcerted by the scratching coming from the depths Cover: The Portrait of Alan Rowlands by Saied Dai :‘Musician’, Oil on Gesso Panel, 117 x 75 cm, 2004 is reproduced by kind permission of the artist. of Dr Ireland’s armchair — reminding me irresistibly of Walter in the first act of Die Meistersinger singing his Trial Song and having his faults noisily marked up on the slate Original recordings made in association with the JOHN IRELAND TRUST. by Beckmesser. During this time Ireland’s grandfather clock also chimed most The Piano Music melodiously on every quarter. Rec ording dates: January 1959 to March 1963. It turned out that Ireland’s comments were not devastating — such things as ‘no Recording location: The Music Room, Burnham, Buckinghamshire. dim yet’ or ‘fuller tone’ — the latter applying to the middle section of Song of the Recording Producer & Engineer: Richard Itter Springtides which he wanted to be ‘like the ocean swell’. After that I visited the Mill Digital Remastering Engineer: Simon Gibson regularly and played many of Ireland’s works to him and he was invariably helpful and Other works by JOHN IRELAND available on Lyrita: encouraging. He never commented on my wrong notes but could spot a misreading in Scherzo & Cortège (Julius Caesar), Mai-Dun, The Forgotten Rite, Tritons, an instant. He told me that the penultimate climax in Rhapsody should be like coming Suite ‘The Overlanders’, A London Overture, Epic March to the top of a hill and seeing the vista open out on the other side. In The Undertone he London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult………………………………SRCD.240 wanted an intensely smooth legato and came and put his hands over mine to ensure the Legend, Overture ‘Satyricon’, Piano Concerto, These Things Shall Be, Two symphonic studies least possible movement. He was punctilious about rests and counted them out loud in Eric Parkin, John Carol Case, London Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir bar 16 of The Holy Boy, where he felt I was coming in too soon on the off-beat chord. He conducted by Sir Adrian Boult…………………………………………………………………………SRCD.241 felt the opening triplet in April should not be quite regular — the first note needed a Concertino Pastorale, The Holy Boy, Minuet & Elegy (A Downland Suite) slight expressive lengthening. In The Towing-Path he wanted the unexpected bass B-flat FRANK BRIDGE Suite for Strings, Rosemary, Sally in our Alley, Cherry Ripe, Lament, Sir Roger de on the last page to come out strongly. He told me that a certain passage in Soho Coverley. London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Sir Adrian Boult……………………SRCD.242 Forenoons should suggest an alcoholically unsteady gait (a gait with which I gather he Sextet, Trios, Sonatas for Clarinet, Cello, Violin himself had not been unacquainted). The ‘second subject’ of Song of the Springtides he Melos Ensemble, Yfrah Neaman, Julian Lloyd Webber, Eric Parkin liked to sound robust and not dainty or effeminate. He told me that he had taken out the Gervase de Peyer, André Navarra……………………………………………………………………SRCD.2271 C-sharp added 6th in the last chord of the first movement of his Sonata — it was The Songs ‘stronger’ that way; he did not mention any other changes, but played me the opening to Benjamin Luxon, Alfreda Hodgson, John Mitchinson, Alan Rowlands…………………………SRCD.2261 demonstrate the rugged style he wanted — vigorous rhythm and strongly marked The Piano Music accents. Of In a May Morning he said, ‘play it as though you were looking at something Eric Parkin………………………………………………………………………………………………...SRCD.2277 so beautiful you could hardly bear it’.

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