Moeran: Stalham River

Although Baines tried his hand at most forms of composition, producing in his teens a massive symphony and copious chamber and vocal works, the piano being always accessible remained his natural medium of expression. He wrote to please himself, happily free of that need to feel justified in the eyes of critics, public and posterity which is the bane of young composers. His music can verge on banality and then as effortlessly touch the sublime with a candour some contemporaries found hard to accept: nobody else, save perhaps Alkan, could have written such disparate pieces as the First and Third Preludes on the very same day …

E. J. Moeran was born on 31 December 1894 and died on 1 December 1950. He was a pupil of John Ireland and his friends included Peter Warlock and Arnold Bax. Between 1918 and 1933 he wrote 18 piano pieces, many of them being influenced by the landscapes of Norfolk and Ireland which he loved. This CD - the first integral collection of his piano music - was recorded in October 1994 as a centenary tribute.

Playing time 78:32