Theme and Four Studies- Alan Rawsthorne (1905-71)
Theme (Allegro moderato): Allegro: Grave: Allegro agitato: Poco lento, ma con lento
Discovered among his papers after his death, and first performed by John Ogden at a Rawsthorne Memorial Concert in 1971, this charming, relatively light-weight work consists of four free variations in the form of character pieces on a simple and eloquent theme also related to tunes in his later Concerto for String Orchestra and the film music for Lease of Life - it is thought that this piano work was written in the early 1940s, possibly during Rawsthorne's wartime service in the Army. Lisztian virtuosity and rhetoric mark the first and third studies, while the second (Grave) is a stately, almost Handelian variation, and the fourth a sensitive Epilogue reminiscent of the last of his more famous Bagatelles for piano. Throughout, his characteristic skill in keyboard writing, personal yet superbly suited to the instrument, pervades the music, and the work as a whole makes a lovely, often unregarded contribution to the piano repertoire. © 1997 John McCabe

Piano Sonata No.1 - David Ellis
This work was written whilst the composer was still a student at the Royal Manchester College of Music in 1955. It was a significant time, for two reasons: firstly, there were several fellow-students who had already demonstrated extraordinary pianistic skills, of whom John Ogdon and David Wilde were particularly outstanding. Secondly, there was something of a major revolution within the composition school; the emergence of the so-called Manchester group of composers, with Goehr, Maxwell Davies and Birtwistle much in evidence, made a considerable impact on the music scene at that time. Not surprisingly, this Piano Sonata is a reflection of those close influences, particularly in the grand gestures of the bravura piano writing, and, to a lesser extent, in the musical language. The first performance was given in 1956 in the Wigmore Hall by one of the virtuoso student pianists who did much to bring the music of their fellow composers to a wider audience, Patricia Cunliffe, who, incidentally, is now the composer's wife. There are three movements, each one developed from the same tiny cell heard at the outset: a rising minor third followed by a semitone step up. The first is mainly contrapuntal in a clearly defined sonata form structure. The second uses a rich harmonic palette and is a set of variations The finale contrasts irregular rhythmic patterns with more straight frorward melodic ideas until the two merge at the close, revealing themselves to be closely related to the first movement's basic idea. Then after the "grand gestures" have worked themselves out of the system, there follows a quiet coda: brief and questioning as the unresolved harmony dies away.

Prelude, Minuet and Reel - Thomas Pitfield
This was one of the composer's earliest publications (OUP), first performed in Sydney, Australia by Beatrice Tange who also recorded it for HMV. The same pianist played it at a reception for Sybil Thorndyke who asked the composer's name and left a message to contact her if he was ever in the same town where she happened to be performing. This he did and they became friendly, eventually becoming fellow members of the PPU (a pacifist organisation). There were many performances of the work in the 1930s and it was later re-published by Lewis Dyson Publishing.

Three Palindromic Preludes For Piano - John R. Williamson
The three preludes are selected from the Twelve Palindromic Preludes, one of several preludes written using the twelve tonal centres from C chromatically. Whilst not using major and minor modes specifically, harmonic relationships and derivations are evident in his style.

Diptych No. 1 Stars in a Dark Night - Christopher Beardsley
Composed in the late spring of 1997, Stars in a Dark Night is the first of two portraits for piano collectively entitled Diptych which present musical portraits of different aspects of the sky. Stars in a Dark Night reflects my fascination since a child with the night sky. In trying to give this fascination some kind of shape, my thoughts often run from a sense of familiarity with the patterns and shapes which perpetually wheel about our heads every night, through to an ever present sense of awe at the unfathomable distances involved in such a scene and, in a deeper sense, questions of a more philosophical nature relating to creation.

Four Piano Pieces After Charles Messier - David Forshaw
1. M45 (The Pleiades in Taurus) : 2. M22 (a globular cluster in Sagittarius) : 3. M57 (The Ring Nebula in Lyra) : 4. M31 (The Great Galaxy in Andromeda)
In 1758 the French astronomer Charles Messier, with his rudimentary 3" telescope, set about putting together a catalogue of celestial objects; galaxies, various star clusters, nebulae and asterisms of all kinds - 105 in all (five more have been added since). They appear in numerical order after the M initial. In this present work four of the objects have been chosen as the subject of pieces for piano. Certain aspects of them as astronomical phenomena have evoked a musical parallel in my mind. They are all very different - M45, the Pleiades, is an open cluster of newly born stars, traditionally seven in number, (the Seven Sisters- although there are considerably more). So the accent is on the number 7 in this piece. - M22, an old tight cluster of over 200,000 stars, is presented in a somewhat minimalist way, very sparse at its edges and extremely dense at its centre. -M57 is an old star whose surface has been blown away, leaving what appears to be a smoke ring in the sky.The central star is still there together with a rogue star which can be observed within the ring. Therefore this very tranquil piece has a central focal point (A) with a 'rogue' F# not far away. (The remains of the 'explosion' can be heard in very quiet chord clusters throughout the piece.) Finally M31, the Great Andromeda Galaxy, the nearest comparable galaxy to our own (it is only 2,200,000 light years away!) is portrayed in its vastness by a very slow tempo and its breadth by the use of the full range of the instrument.

Piano Sonata (For John McCabe) - David Golightly
Allegro volante: Expressivo delicato: Allegro scherzando
This piano sonata is a three movement work dedicated to John McCabe. In 1996 John and David were invited to be the classical representatives for the PRS Advisory Group, established to assist the company review its public performance and broadcast policy. The sonata was composed during the concluding period of this commitment and may be one of the many interesting results of this two year period.

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