Alwyn - Chamber Music and Songs - Naxos: 8570340 - CD or download

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While there are no long-lost masterpieces here, the best of this music is more than attractive. — BBC Music Magazine, December 2007, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 2nd Jul 2007
Catalogue No: 8570340
Label: Naxos
Length: 70 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Alwyn: Rhapsody for Piano Quartet

Work length9:19

$2.00

$2.60

Andrew Ball (piano), Madeleine Mitchell (violin), Lucy Wilding (cello), Roger Chase (viola)
Recorded: 17-18 August 2006
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Suffolk, UK

Alwyn: Sonata Impromptu for Violin and Viola

Work length16:44

$4.00

$5.20

Madeleine Mitchell (violin), Roger Chase (viola)
Recorded: 17-18 August 2006
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Suffolk, UK

I. Prelude

Track length2:43

$1.00

$1.30

II. Theme and Variations

Track length8:59

$2.00

$2.60

III. Finale alla capriccio

Track length5:02

$1.00

$1.30

Alwyn: Ballade

Work length10:01

$3.00

$3.85

Andrew Ball (piano), Roger Chase (viola)
Recorded: 17-18 August 2006
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Suffolk, UK

Alwyn: Wood Magic

Work length4:37

$2.00

$2.60

Iain Burnside (piano), Jeremy Huw Williams (baritone), Madeleine Mitchell (violin)
Recorded: 10-11 October 2006
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Suffolk, UK

Wood Magic

Track length3:22

$1.00

$1.30

Lament of the Tall Tree

Track length1:15

$1.00

$1.30

Alwyn: 3 Songs

Work length6:39

$3.00

$3.90

Iain Burnside (piano), Jeremy Huw Williams (baritone)
Recorded: 10-11 October 2006
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Suffolk, UK

No. 1. Nocturne

Track length2:55

$1.00

$1.30

No. 2. Illumination

Track length1:36

$1.00

$1.30

No. 3. Harvest

Track length2:08

$1.00

$1.30

Alwyn: Sonatina for Violin and Piano

Work length10:27

$3.00

$3.90

Andrew Ball (piano), Madeleine Mitchell (violin)
Recorded: 17-18 August 2006
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Suffolk, UK

I. Allegro e grazioso

Track length3:49

$1.00

$1.30

II. Adagio

Track length3:25

$1.00

$1.30

III. Vivace

Track length3:13

$1.00

$1.30

Alwyn: Three Winter Poems (1948)

Work length8:59

$3.00

$3.90

Bridge String Quartet
Recorded: 17-18 August 2006
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Suffolk, UK

No. 1. Winter Landscape

Track length2:47

$1.00

$1.30

No. 2. Elegy, "Frozen Waters"

Track length3:40

$1.00

$1.30

No. 3. Serenade, "Snow Shower"

Track length2:32

$1.00

$1.30

Alwyn: Chaconne for Tom

Work length3:19

$1.00

$1.30

John Turner (recorder), Iain Burnside (piano)
Recorded: 22 March 2006
Recording Venue: Potton Hall, Suffolk, UK

Reviews
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Reviews

December 2007

While there are no long-lost masterpieces here, the best of this music is more than attractive.

2010

Having surveyed William Alwyn's orchestral output with such conspicuous success, Naxos now turns its attention to the chamber and vocal music. Just three of the eight items on this useful anthology have previously been recorded: the urgently expressive Rhapsody for piano quartet and strikingly resourceful SonataImpromptu for violin and viola were completed in 1939, the latter written for (and premiered by) Frederick Grinke and Watson Forbes, while the ravishing Three Winter Poems for string quartet date from early in 1948 and bear a dedication to Alwyn's teacher at the RAM, Sir John McEwen (who died that same year aged 80). All are well worth getting to know and display the fastidious craft and generosity of feeling that are characteristic of their creator.
Of the music new to the catalogue, the 1939 Ballade for viola and piano combines full-throated ardour and wistfulness in a manner which suggests a more than passing acquaintance with Bax's powerful Viola Sonata. The 1933 Sonatina for violin and piano wears a sunnier demeanour, and we're also treated to five exquisite settings of poetry by Trevor Blakemore (1879-1953) and the composer himself (Alwyn was an accomplished flautist and painter to boot). The disc concludes with the pithy (and witty) Chaconne for Tom (1982), part of an 80th-birthday tribute devised by recorder player John Turner for the Lancastrian composer Thomas Pitfield (1903-99).
Performances throughout reflect great credit on all concerned in their scrupulous preparation and unquenchable conviction. Sound and balance, too, give no real cause for complaint.
Alwyn's growing band of admirers needn't hold back.

October 2007

Performances throughout reflect great credit on all concerned in their scrupulous preparation and unquenchable conviction. Sound and balance, too, give no real cause for complaint. Alwyn's growing band of admirers needn't hold back.

Alwyn - Chamber Music and Songs

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