Benjamin Dale: Piano Music

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Danny Driver's stylish and immaculate playing makes an outstanding case for some technically demanding music. One for English music aficionados. — BBC Music Magazine, September 2011, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 31st May 2011
Catalogue No: CDA67827
Label: Hyperion
Length: 65 minutes

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Dale, B: Piano Sonata in D minor

Work length42:02

$12.10

$16.50

Danny Driver (piano)

I. Allegro deciso

Track length12:18

$1.10

$1.50

IIa. Molto adagio

Track length1:12

$1.10

$1.50

IIb. Variation 1

Track length1:24

$1.10

$1.50

IIc. Variation 2. Molto adagio

Track length2:48

$1.10

$1.50

IId. Variation 3. Allegretto con grazia

Track length1:00

$1.10

$1.50

IIe. Variation 4. Adagio maestoso

Track length3:00

$1.10

$1.50

Movement 2f. Scherzo. Variation 5. Presto

Track length1:41

$1.10

$1.50

IIg. Variation 6. Tempo di Mazurka

Track length2:24

$1.10

$1.50

IIh. Variation 7. Prestissimo

Track length1:29

$1.10

$1.50

IIi. Andante

Track length4:44

$1.10

$1.50

Movement 2j. Finale. Molto allegro – Lento

Track length10:02

$1.10

$1.50

Dale, B: Prunella

Work length2:44

$1.10

$1.50

Danny Driver (piano)

Dale, B: Night Fancies

Work length9:01

$1.10

$1.50

Danny Driver (piano)

Bowen: Miniature Suite in C major, Op. 14

Work length11:21

$3.30

$4.50

Danny Driver (piano)

I. Humoresque

Track length3:03

$1.10

$1.50

II. Nocturne

Track length5:20

$1.10

$1.50

III. Scherzo: Finale

Track length2:58

$1.10

$1.50

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The monumental Piano Sonata in D minor was composed by a young Benjamin Dale while he was still a student at the Royal Academy of Music. Dale’s contemporaries included the burgeoning composer-pianists Arnold Bax and York Bowen. Dale dedicated the sonata to his close friend Bowen, who gave the premiere of the work at the Academy in February 1905 and astonished listeners with its daring structural originality and thematic integrity and its breathtaking tonal colours. The elaborate form encompasses an impressive amalgamation of the traditional slow movement, scherzo and finale into an inventive set of variations. Also featured are Dale’s charming Prunella and Night Fancies in which Dale explores impressionistic colourings. Rather aptly, the final work on the disc is the first recording of York Bowen’s Miniature Suite in C major, the Humoresque of which is dedicated reciprocally to Dale.

His expressive sensibility and remarkable dexterity make young British pianist Danny Driver the ideal advocate for this repertoire. His landmark interpretations of the Bowen Sonatas were met with huge critical acclaim and Driver performs this incredibly virtuosic music with apparent ease, passion and lyricism. This disc of eclectic and intricate piano music will surely enhance his reputation as one of Britain’s finest pianists.

Reviews

September 2011

Danny Driver's stylish and immaculate playing makes an outstanding case for some technically demanding music. One for English music aficionados.

August 2011

Danny Driver has an extraordinary affinity with English music of this period. He plays Dale's Sonata with a conviction and musicality that just might persuade you it's a forgotten masterpiece...Bowen's three-movement Suite, recorded with a slightly airier acoustic, is delivered with all the requisite wit and panache that the music demands.

August 2011

Here is a disc to warm the hearts and minds of those who treasure romantic nostalgia...it is doubtful that [the Sonata] has ever been played with a more shining commitment than by Danny Driver. His performance ranges from thundering rhetoric to a whispering poetic delicacy...you become enthralled by a pianist of such magisterial warmth and finesse...This issue is as moving as it is superlative.

23rd June 2011

Danny Driver’s superb performance shows a confident composer, imaginative in sustaining a span of 45 minutes. Night Fancies, which Driver plays at Wigmore Hall on July 9, flirts with Impressionism, to which York Bowen’s Miniature Suite is a brilliant foil.

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