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See Terms & Conditions for p&p rates. | |  | Ireland - Piano Music Volume 4
This completes Mark Bebbington series of John Ireland’s piano music and includes some premiere recordings. “As in previous volumes, his impeccable phrasing, sensitivity to chord-colouring, and expressive identification with the music make this new disc probably the version of these pieces to go for...Bebbington understands all [Ireland's] moods, and is equally at home in the occasional moments of fierce exultation...The four volumes constitute perhaps the most impressive achievement in Bebbington's discography to date.” BBC Music Magazine, Christmas 2012 ***** “Bebbington's empathy with this music is total, even if he lingers a little too lovingly in places” Gramophone Magazine, June 2013 “Their wistful, bucolic mood, at times folk-inspired, at others drawing inspiration from a Bach chorale (Meine Seele erhebt den Herren), is well captured by Bebbington, who brings variety to this charming but sometimes unvarying music...Bebbington's enterprise, recorded in Symphony Hall, Birmingham, plays an important part in completing the picture of early mid-20th-century British music.” The Observer, 30th September 2012 | | | In stock - usually despatched within 1 working day. |
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| |  | The Complete John Ireland Songbook Volume 1
The first in a four-disc series that will comprise the first-ever complete recording of the songs of John Ireland. Includes his evocative war poetry settings of Housman, Brooke, Cooper and Masefield and five world-première recordings of the popular ballads Ireland composed under the pseudonym of Turlay Royce. Booklet includes full texts and detailed notes. | 
| | | Scheduled for release on 1 July 2013. Order it now and we will deliver it as soon as it is available. |
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| |  | Ireland - Piano Works Volume 3
John Ireland’s piano music, some of the most appealing British piano music of the twentieth century, reflects the composer’s many interests: his love of literature, his interest in paganism and Celtic mysticism, as well as the bitter-sweet regret of the passing of love. irelanThis recording includes Ireland’s Piano Sonata, whose third movement is associated with Chanctonbury Ring on the Sussex South Downs, and the four Preludes, the third of which, The Holy Boy, written on Christmas Day 1913, is one of Ireland’s most popular and touching melodies. “Comparative listening to the meaty Sonata that Ireland wrote between 1918 and 1920 (the one work common to all three releases) finds both Rowlands and Bebbington allowing themselves rather greater breathing space than the more urgently propulsive Lenehan (who whips up quite a gale in the first movement's development).
Each is a mightily convincing proponent, though Rowlands's interpretation carries particular authority: during the late 1950s he studied intensively with Ireland (the booklet contains a most engaging and fascinating personal reminiscence) and it was Rowlands whom the composer recommended to Richard Itter of Lyrita for its complete recorded edition.
With no editing facilities available, single takes were a necessity in sessions spanning January 1959 to March 1963 which took place in the music room of Itter's Buckinghamshire home.
Captured in perfectly acceptable mono sound, Rowlands's memorably intimate performances betoken a very special empathy for this repertoire.
Indeed, his playing throughout these three well filled CDs evinces a selfless dedication, recreative wonder and abundant poetic instinct.
As for the two new collections, Lenehan effortlessly maintains the favourable impression left by the first two instalments in his series (reviewed above). With his pellucid, exquisitely variegated tonal palette, he makes a gorgeous thing of The Almond Trees, plumbs real depths in Spring will not wait and the central “Cypress” from Green Ways, and masterminds superbly involving accounts of the gale-tossed Equinox and mercurial Ballade of London Nights. What's more, he has been accorded crystal-clear yet nicely atmospheric engineering.
For first-timers, however, Bebbington's programme provides a pretty much ideal introduction, containing two of Ireland's most popular and durable achievements, namely Decorations and London Pieces – both given with such winning aplomb, scrupulous care and heartwarming sense of new discovery that it's hard not to fall in love with them all over again (the vernally fresh 'Chelsea Reach' positively beams with joy).
Elsewhere, Bebbington displays wonderful control in the leaner-textured and economically argued Sonatina, just as he is acutely responsive to the fearful undertow of the Ballade (close cousin to the riveting Legend for piano and orchestra). Somm's sound is clean and true.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010 | | | (also available to download from $6.00) | Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.) |
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| |  | John Ireland Piano Music
“Captured in perfectly acceptable mono sound, Rowland's memorably intimate performances betoken a very special empathy for this repertoire.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2008 | | | Usually despatched in 4 - 5 working days. |
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