When Lyrita proposed recording his complete piano works, composer John Ireland recommended pianist Alan Rowlands for the job. By his own admission, Rowlands was not a virtuoso pianist, but he was still a very good musician and undoubtedly the man for the job. He had studied the music with Ireland, and the composer had told him everything he needed to know about the 51 works, from the way to use the sustain pedal to float a phrase to the exact length of an especially dramatic fermata. When the results were released on five ... Read More
When Lyrita proposed recording his complete piano works, composer John Ireland recommended pianist Alan Rowlands for the job. By his own admission, Rowlands was not a virtuoso pianist, but he was still a very good musician and undoubtedly the man for the job. He had studied the music with Ireland, and the composer had told him everything he needed to know about the 51 works, from the way to use the sustain pedal to float a phrase to the exact length of an especially dramatic fermata. When the results were released on five LPs in the late '50s and early '60s, they were greeted with extravagant but wholly deserved praise for their insight, sympathy, musicality, and authenticity, and this 2008 reissue on three CDs retains all those virtues.Though English modernist piano music covers the gamut from the keenly evocative Sarnia through austerely nostalgic The Darkened Valley to the architecturally magnificent sonata, Rowlands is always up to the task and deep into the music. And while it's true that one can... Read Less
