York Bowen Piano Music
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: (Edwin) York Bowen
Label: Hyperion
Magazine Review Date: 6/1996
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 77
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CDA66838
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
(24) Preludes in All Keys, Movement: No. 1 in C |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
(24) Preludes in All Keys, Movement: No. 2 in C minor |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
(24) Preludes in All Keys, Movement: No. 6 in D minor |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
(24) Preludes in All Keys, Movement: No. 7 in E flat |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
(24) Preludes in All Keys, Movement: No. 8 in E flat minor |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
(24) Preludes in All Keys, Movement: No. 10 in E minor |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
(24) Preludes in All Keys, Movement: No. 15 in G |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
(24) Preludes in All Keys, Movement: No. 16 in G minor |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
(24) Preludes in All Keys, Movement: No. 18 in G sharp minor |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
(24) Preludes in All Keys, Movement: No. 19 in A |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
(24) Preludes in All Keys, Movement: No. 20 in A minor |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
(24) Preludes in All Keys, Movement: No. 21 in B flat |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
(24) Preludes in All Keys, Movement: No. 22 in B flat minor |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
Ballade No. 2 |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
Sonata for Piano No. 5 |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
Berceuse |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
Suite Mignonne, Movement: Moto perpetuo |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
Toccata |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
(2) Romances |
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer
(Edwin) York Bowen, Composer Stephen Hough, Piano |
Author: Andrew Achenbach
This disc came as quite a revelation. York Bowen (1884-1961) was, along with Arnold Bax, perhaps the most brilliantly gifted product of the Royal Academy of Music from the first decade of this century. Not only was Bowen a dazzlingly accomplished pianist, he quickly completed a healthy clutch of large-scale offerings that had Saint-Saens hailing him as “the most remarkable of the young British composers”; indeed, by 1912, Bowen had written three piano concertos and two symphonies. After the First World War, however, Bowen’s music went out of fashion and he drifted into a life of quiet academic security (he held a professorship at the Royal Academy right up until 1959). Now, this eloquent new collection from Stephen Hough suggests that a radical reappraisal of Bowen’s compositional achievement is long overdue.
Certainly, a piece like the Fifth Sonata from 1923 (there are six in all, of which three remain in manuscript) reveals a pianistic craft of the highest order. This red-blooded, lyrical creation (magnificently played here) is full of strong ideas, resourcefully worked out. Bowen’s chosen idiom invites comparisons with Rachmaninov and (closer to home) Bax and Ireland (the triadic opening flourish even momentarily put me in mind of Korngold’s Third Piano Sonata), whereas the bewitching, harmonically searchingBerceuse (1926) and achingly tender Romances (published in 1913 and 1917) inhabit an altogether more intimate world (both bear a dedication to the composer’s wife). The sizeable Ballade No. 2 (1931) is another gem, displaying a most beguiling melodic and (as its title suggests) narrative flow. Hough also gives us 13 of the 24 Preludes which make up Bowen’s Op. 102 (1950), and an extremely compelling sequence they form too: try the gently rocking No. 21 in B flat major (track 7), the winsomely delicate No. 10 in E minor (track 3) or the stormy, fearsomely tricky No. 18 in G sharp minor (track 13). Inquisitive readers may be interested to know that The Gramophone Classical Catalogue lists a performance of Bowen’s Preludes in their entirety from Marie-Catherine Girod on the French 3D Classics label, reviewed by PD last December. That just leaves the exquisitely elegant Moto perpetuo from the Suite Mignonne (1919) and the thrillingly virtuosic Toccata, an unpublished late work dating from 1957.
It is well-nigh impossible to imagine a more sensitive or imperious advocate for Bowen’s art than Stephen Hough, who responds with his customarily effortless technical mastery, rapt affection and intrepid panache. As usual from this company, both production values (the Keener/Faulkner team at St George’s, Brandon Hill, Bristol) and documentation (thoughtfully perceptive essays from Francis Pott and Hough himself) are exemplary. More please!'
Certainly, a piece like the Fifth Sonata from 1923 (there are six in all, of which three remain in manuscript) reveals a pianistic craft of the highest order. This red-blooded, lyrical creation (magnificently played here) is full of strong ideas, resourcefully worked out. Bowen’s chosen idiom invites comparisons with Rachmaninov and (closer to home) Bax and Ireland (the triadic opening flourish even momentarily put me in mind of Korngold’s Third Piano Sonata), whereas the bewitching, harmonically searching
It is well-nigh impossible to imagine a more sensitive or imperious advocate for Bowen’s art than Stephen Hough, who responds with his customarily effortless technical mastery, rapt affection and intrepid panache. As usual from this company, both production values (the Keener/Faulkner team at St George’s, Brandon Hill, Bristol) and documentation (thoughtfully perceptive essays from Francis Pott and Hough himself) are exemplary. More please!'
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