William Alwyn - Piano Music Vol.1 (2006)

William Alwyn was born in Northampton where he showed an early interest in music and began to learn to play the piccolo. At age 15 he entered the Royal Academy of Music in London where he studied flute and composition. He was a virtuoso flautist and for a time was the principal flautist of the London Symphony Orchestra. Alwyn served as professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music from 1926 to 1955. William Alwyn had a remarkable range of talents. He was a distinguished polyglot, poet, and artist, as well as musician. His compositional output was varied and large and included five symphonies, four operas, several concertos and string quartets. Alwyn wrote over 70 film scores from 1941 to 1962. His classic film scores included Odd Man Out, Desert Victory, Fires Were Started, The History of Mr Polly, The Fallen Idol, The Black Tent and Crimson Pirate. Many of the scores have been lost, but in recent years CD recordings have been made, reconstructed by Philip Lane from the film soundtracks themselves. Alwyn could be considered a late Romantic composer whose style is not dissimilar to, for example, William Walton. He relished dissonance, and devised his own alternative to twelve-tone serialism, explained in his own programme note to his Third Symphony (1956): "the twelve notes used in a different way – in a tonal manner". Eight notes of the possible twelve are used in the first movement, with the remaining four (D, E, F, and A-flat) constituting the middle movement, and all twelve being combined for the finale. (The composer adds "This all sounds very complicated, but I don’t think you will find it a difficult work to listen to." Alwyn's concerto for harp and string orchestra, Lyra Angelica, became popularly known when figure skater Michelle Kwan performed to it at the 1998 Winter Olympics. William Alwyn lived at 'Larkrise", Dunwich Road, Blythburgh, Suffolk and died in Southwold, Suffolk, England in 1985. He was survived by his second wife, the composer Doreen Carwithen. William Alwyn is not normally associated with the composition of keyboard music. However throughout his working life he wrote much for the piano that deserves our attention. This is diametrically opposed to the predicament that has plagued the reputations of John Ireland and York Bowen who are regarded as being primarily writers for the piano in spite of the fact that each wrote a large amount of music for a variety of instrumental, vocal and orchestral combinations. Alwyn, on the other hand is regarded by most that know his concert hall music as a symphonist, although 50 years ago it was imagined that the world of film music was the field of his main endeavours. Today perhaps we can see William Alwyn in the round and can appreciate his orchestral, chamber, film and piano music. There are two fundamental problems in any study of Alwyn’s writing for the piano. Firstly it is difficult to pin down exactly what he wrote. There are, of course, a small number of ‘recital' pieces that are relatively well known - at least to Alwyn cognoscenti. However, much of the opus consists of smaller scale pieces that were either designed for, or have been used for, educational purposes. I have found a number of little gems in albums of piano pieces containing works by a number of composers - especially the excellent Lengnick Five by Ten series. And secondly, little of this music is easily available either on recordings or as published scores. It is necessary to haunt the second-hand music and charity shops in the hope of picking up a few pieces of sheet music. A small number of works are still in publication. Within the musical world there is a prejudice against music produced for the amateur pianist and for educational purposes. I remember inquiring in a well known second-hand music shop in York about some piano pieces by Thomas Dunhill only to be told by the shop assistant, "We don’t get much demand for him. Most people that come here are not interested in that sort of music." There was a definite sneer in her voice. Poor old Dunhill, such a craftsman - whether writing for the professional or amateur. Many of the piano works of William Alwyn are tarred with the same brush. It is assumed that because it is published in Volume 2 of ‘The Highway of Progress’ it is not worth considering. Complexity is confused with craftsmanship; quality with a wrongly perceived need for profundity. The main recordings available of Alwyn's piano music, of which there are three obvious contenders – concentrate on the concert works. The most recent Chandos CD (CHAN 9825) has the Sonata alla Toccata and the Fantasy Waltzes, played by Julian Milford. The earlier Chandos Ogdon recording (CHAN 8399) has the Fantasy Waltzes and the Preludes and the early Lyrita mono recording by Sheila Randell (RCS16) has the Sonata and the Fantasy Waltzes. We are lucky that the recent CD by Milford has first recordings of Green Hills, Movements for Piano and Night Thoughts.

Ashley Wass: piano

01. Sonata Alla Tocatta - Maestoso. Allegro ritmico e jubilante (3:34)
02. Sonata Alla Tocatta - Andante con moto e semplice (2:25)
03. Sonata Alla Tocatta - Molto vivace (3:54)
04. Green Hills - Andante molto e tranquillo (3:05)
05. Cricketty Mill - Allegretto e piacevole (4:18)
06. Prelude And Fugue Formed On An Indian Scale - Prelude. Andante e tranquillo (2:15)
07. Prelude And Fugue Formed On An Indian Scale - Fugue. Allegro moderato e ritmico (1:35)
08. Haze Of Noon - Adagio molto tranquillo (2:46)
09. Harvest Home - The Tinker's Tune. Allegro non troppo - reel time (1:18)
10. Harvest Home - The Village Band. Alla marcia (1:23)
11. Harvest Home - Andsantino (1:47)
12. Harvest Home - The Church Bells Ring. Moderato e semplice (1:20)
13. Fancy Free - Sunday Morning. Andante piacevole (1:05)
14. Fancy Free - Snowdrops. Andante (1:46)
15. Fancy Free - Twilight. Allegretto. Quasi andantino (1:22)
16. Fancy Free - Happy-go-lucky. Allegro (1:03)
17. April Morn - The Lost Lamb. Adagio doloroso (1:07)
18. April Morn - April shower. Presto (0:48)
19. April Morn - Bluebells. Andante capriciosso (0:45)
20. April Morn - Violets. Andantino amoroso (0:51)
21. Fantasy Waltzes - Tempo rubato e capriccioso (2:49)
22. Fantasy Waltzes - Scherzando (1:30)
23. Fantasy Waltzes - Moderato (2:46)
24. Fantasy Waltzes - Grazioso (2:30)
25. Fantasy Waltzes - Lento (3:52)
26. Fantasy Waltzes - Allegro giocoso (5:21)
27. Fantasy Waltzes - Lento (3:59)
28. Fantasy Waltzes - Vivace, ma ritmico (1:22)
29. Fantasy Waltzes - Lento e lugubre (4:26)
30. Fantasy Waltzes - In tempo piacevole (1:39)
31. Fantasy Waltzes - Presto (5:16)

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