James Geer, Andrew West, Ronald Woodley – Façades (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

James Geer, Andrew West, Ronald Woodley - Façades (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz] Download

SOMM Recordings explores one of the most significant partnerships in 20th-century British music with Facades, an album of piano-accompanied songs and music for four-hand piano by William Walton and Constant Lambert. Facades takes its title from Walton’s era-defining “entertainment”, heard here in arrangements for four-hand piano of its two orchestral Suites by Lambert – regarded by Walton as the definitive reciter of Edith Sitwell’s nonsense verses. Lambert’s Trois pi`eces n`egres pour les touches blanches for piano duet are a kaleidoscopic, jazz-accented tour de force exploration of the piano’s white keys. Described by the composer as an “idyll”, Walton’s Siesta (also for two-player piano) is, says Ronald Woodley in his entertaining and informative booklet notes, “infused with the clear light and open charm of Italy”.

The eight song settings by Lambert of poems by the eighth-century Chinese poet Li Po are “exquisitely crafted, restrained and often enigmatic miniatures [marked by an] elusive and allusive musical style”. Completing the recital, a selection of songs by Walton range from Tudor pastiche (Under the Greenwood Tree) to the atonal-inflected Tritons and lyrically captivating Beatriz’s Song. Making their SOMM debuts are tenor James Geer and his accompanist in the songs, pianist Ronald Woodley. The latter is joined at the keyboard in the four-hand piano arrangements by Andrew West whose previous SOMM recordings include three acclaimed volumes of Parry’s English Lyrics.

Lambert’s Trois pi`eces n`egres pour les touches blanches for piano duet are a kaleidoscopic, jazz-accented tour de force exploration of the piano’s white keys. Described by the composer as an “idyll”, Walton’s Siesta (also for two-player piano) is, says Ronald Woodley in his entertaining and informative booklet notes, “infused with the clear light and open charm of Italy”. The eight-song settings by Lambert of poems by the eighth-century Chinese poet Li Po are “exquisitely crafted, restrained and often enigmatic miniatures [marked by an] elusive and allusive musical style”. Completing the recital, a selection of songs by Walton range from Tudor pastiche (Under the Greenwood Tree) to the atonal-inflected Tritons and lyrically captivating Beatriz’s Song.

Tracklist:

01. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – 3 Pièces nègres pour les touches blanches: No. 1, Aubade (02:33)
02. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – 3 Pièces nègres pour les touches blanches: No. 2, Siesta (03:06)
03. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – 3 Pièces nègres pour les touches blanches: No. 3, Nocturne (03:05)
04. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – 4 Songs: No. 4, The Winds (01:42)
05. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – 3 Songs to Poems by Edith Sitwell: No. 1, Daphne (02:53)
06. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – Tritons (01:54)
07. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – 8 Poems of Li-Po: No. 1, A Summer Day (01:54)
08. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – 8 Poems of Li-Po: No. 2, Nocturne (01:54)
09. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – 8 Poems of Li-Po: No. 3, With a Man of Leisure (01:10)
10. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – 8 Poems of Li-Po: No. 4, Lines (03:00)
11. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – Siesta (Version for Piano 4 Hands) (04:41)
12. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – Under the Greenwood Tree (From “As You Like It”) (01:49)
13. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – Beatriz’s Song (From “Christopher Columbus”) [Arr. C. Palmer for Voice & Piano] (02:47)
14. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – 8 Poems of Li-Po: No. 5, The Ruin of the Ku-Su Palace (01:19)
15. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – 8 Poems of Li-Po: No. 6, The Intruder (01:14)
16. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – 8 Poems of Li-Po: No. 7, On the City Street (01:49)
17. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – 8 Poems of Li-Po: No. 8, The Long-Departed Lover (03:26)
18. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – Façade Suite No. 1 (Arr. C. Lambert for Piano 4 Hands): I. Polka (01:24)
19. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – Façade Suite No. 1 (Arr. C. Lambert for Piano 4 Hands): II. Valse (03:27)
20. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – Façade Suite No. 1 (Arr. C. Lambert for Piano 4 Hands): III. Swiss Jodelling Song (02:32)
21. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – Façade Suite No. 1 (Arr. C. Lambert for Piano 4 Hands): IV. Tango – Pasodoblé (02:00)
22. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – Façade Suite No. 1 (Arr. C. Lambert for Piano 4 Hands): V. Tarantella Sevillana (02:43)
23. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – Façade Suite No. 2 (Arr. C. Lambert for Piano 4 Hands): I. Fanfare (00:39)
24. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – Façade Suite No. 2 (Arr. C. Lambert for Piano 4 Hands): II. Scotch Rhapsody (01:20)
25. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – Façade Suite No. 2 (Arr. C. Lambert for Piano 4 Hands): III. Country Dance (02:14)
26. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – Façade Suite No. 2 (Arr. C. Lambert for Piano 4 Hands): IV. Noche Espagnola (Long Steel Glass) (02:50)
27. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – Façade Suite No. 2 (Arr. C. Lambert for Piano 4 Hands): V. Popular Song (02:19)
28. James Geer, Andrew West & Ronald Woodley – Façade Suite No. 2 (Arr. C. Lambert for Piano 4 Hands): VI. Fox-Trot (Old Sir Faulk) (01:57)