Stevenson - Passacaglia on DSCH for Piano | APR APR5650

Stevenson - Passacaglia on DSCH for Piano

£10.40

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Label: APR

Cat No: APR5650

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Instrumental

Release Date: 30th August 2019

Contents

Artists

Ronald Stevenson (piano)

Works

Stevenson, Ronald

Passacaglia on DSCH

Artists

Ronald Stevenson (piano)

About

British composer and pianist Ronald Stevenson was born in March 1928. Here we are issuing his near legendary first recording, made in 1964, of his magnum opus, the Passacaglia on DSCH.

Stevenson has remained somewhat outside the mainstream of British 20th century music as he has maintained the tradition of composer/pianist. He is a magnificent performer himself, and sees himself as most influenced by the likes of Busoni and Grainger. Born in Lancashire, he studied in Manchester but has lived for over 50 years in West Linton, Scotland.

The Passacaglia on DSCH has been described as the longest single movement in the piano literature and is based on a seven bar theme derived from the musical notes (in German notation) contained in the name Dmitri Schostakovich. The work was completed in 1962 and a copy presented to the Russian composer at the Edinburgh Festival that year. It is one of those works which seems much shorter than its length, such is the onward drive of its kaleidoscopically brilliant material. The countless variations include, amongst others, sections organised as suite, nocturne, pibroch, etudes and culminate in a triple fugue which combines the DSCH motive with BACH and the Dies Irae! This is a work in the tradition which runs from Bach’s Art of Fugue through Busoni’s Fantasia Contrapuntistica to Sorabji’s Opus Clavicembalisticum.

Stevenson himself gave the world premiere in South Africa in 1963 (he had taken an appointment at the University of Cape Town) and the following year, still in Cape Town, he made the recording presented here. The work was issued as a two LP set in a Limited Edition of 100 copies and is therefore one of the rarest recordings known to collectors. It captures Stevenson in his prime as pianist and gives a more urgent view of the work than his second recording made twenty years later (the first recording is eight minutes shorter!) The great John Ogdon subsequently made the first generally available recording, for EMI, in 1966, a recording sadly missing from today’s catalogues.

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