Penelope Thwaites, Benjamin Frith and Tippett Quartet - Gardens, Fables, Prisons, Dreams (2023) [24/96]

SOMM is delighted to announce the release of Gardens, Fables, Prisons, Dreams, eight first recordings of chamber music by composer Penelope Thwaites paying homage to "the heroes, the witty wordsmiths, the dancers, the poets and the visionaries, and two great composers" who have influenced her musical life. Thwaites is joined by fellow pianist Benjamin Frith for the exuberant six-part A Lamberth Garland, the enchanting eight-part retelling of Oscar Wilde's fable The Selfish Giant and Thwaites' arrangement of Delius's In a Summer Garden, the first to be made for two pianos. She is heard with John Mills (viiolin) and Bozidar Vukotic (cello) on Vijay's Fable, drawn from her culture-fusing score for Indian choreographer Vijaylakshmi Subramaniam, and the atmospheric Mazurka: Au Tombeau de Chopin. The Tippett Quartet contribute three memorable performances; Jan Palach's Theme, recalling the self-immolating student protestor against the Soviet Union's 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia; For Irina, a tribute to dissident Russian poet Irina Ratushinskaya who survived imprisonment but died of cancer in 2017; and with double bassist Laurence Ungless for To the Hills, a string quintet version of Thwaites' earlier choral setting of Psalm 121. Since her 1974 London debut at Wigmore Hall, she has performed in more than 30 countries, and is internationally known as an acclaimed pianist and editor of The New Percy Grainger Companion, the standard reference book on performing his music.

TRACKLIST

1. Tippett Quartet - Jan Palach's Theme
2. Pénélope Thwaites - I. The Lambeth Waltz
3. Pénélope Thwaites - II. A Gardener's Song
4. Pénélope Thwaites - III. Song of a Scotsman
5. Pénélope Thwaites - IV. An English Rose
6. Pénélope Thwaites - V. The Wildlife Garden
7. Pénélope Thwaites - VI. Reprise: The Lambeth Waltz
8. Pénélope Thwaites - Vijay's Fable
9. Pénélope Thwaites - Mazurka: Au Tombeau de Chopin
10. Pénélope Thwaites - (Arr. for Two Pianos by Penelope Thwaites)
11. Tippett Quartet - For Irina
12. Tippett Quartet - To the Hills
13. Pénélope Thwaites - I. Overture
14. Pénélope Thwaites - II. Children's Dance and Games
15. Pénélope Thwaites - III. The Chase
16. Pénélope Thwaites - IV. Giant's Dance
17. Pénélope Thwaites - V. Frost, Wind and Snow
18. Pénélope Thwaites - VI. Spring and the Little Boy
19. Pénélope Thwaites - VII. Celebration Dance
20. Pénélope Thwaites - VIII. Evening Dance



Thanks to the Original customer.