Grainger, Percy - Rambles and Reflections - Lane, Piers (piano)
ARTISTIC QUALITY: 10
SOUND QUALITY: 10(CLASSICSTODAY.com)
'musically enchanting fare … everything is played with unfaltering command … the recording and presentation are immaculate'
(Gramophone)
Though he professed not to enjoy concert giving, Grainger was one of the greatest pianists of the earlier 20th century and had an intimate understanding of the capabilities of the piano and how best to write for it. Though his compositional voice was unique he was therefore in many ways part of the great composer/pianist tradition stretching from Liszt to Busoni for whom the concert transcription was an essential part of their art. This CD contains the majority of Grainger's concert transcriptions of music by other composers (his few Bach arrangements will appear on a future Piers Lane recording). They range from the folk inspired Irish Dances of Stanford, full of Grainger's characteristically extrovert piano writing, to the hyperromantic lushness (and incredible pianistic sophistication) of his 'Ramble on Love' based on Richard Strauss's 'Rosenkavalier', all superbly played by Piers Lane who, like Grainger, certainly can't resist a 'good tune'!
Percy Grainger - Rambles and Reflections
1. William Byrd: The Carman’s Whistle (Air and Variations)
2. John Dowland: Now, o now, I needs must part
3. G F Handel: Hornpipe from Water Music
4. Cyril Scott: Handelian Rhapsody
5. Frederick Delius: Air and Dance
C V Stanford
Four Irish Dances
6. A March-Jig (Maguire’s Kick)
7. A Slow Dance
8. The Leprechaun’s Dance
9. A Reel
10. [Chinese melody]: Beautiful Fresh Flower
11. Richard Strauss: Ramble on Love (from Der Rosenkavalier)
12. Johannes Brahms: Cradle Song (Wiegenlied, Op 49 No 4)
13. Gabriel Fauré: Après un rêve (Op 7 No 1)
14. Gabriel Fauré: Nell (Op 18 No 1)
15. Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Paraphrase on Flower Waltz
16. George Gershwin: The Man I Love
17. George Gershwin: Love Walked In
18. after Stephen Foster: Lullaby from Tribute to Foster