James Willshire – Cecil Coles, Gustav Holst: Piano Music (2021) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

James Willshire – Cecil Coles, Gustav Holst: Piano Music (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:08:44 minutes | 1,09 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Delphian Records

Behind the lines of the Western Front, the young Scottish composer Cecil Coles sent his friend and mentor Gustav Holst a score, stained with mud and blood. Only one movement survived: the rest was believed destroyed by enemy action.Four months later Coles himself was killed in battle rescuing injured comrades.

James Willshire’s groundbreaking survey of his piano music reveals a composer finding his voice in pre-war Britain, France and Germany, a poignant and distinctive blend of ‘happy–sad’, as Nigel Osborne’s perceptive notes describe it.After the war, Holst’s own work shows him returning to his fascination with folk music with ‘fresh ears of almost shocking clarity’, in harmonic experiments that parallel those of Bartók.

The recital culminates in a compelling performance of Iain Farrington’s new arrangement of one of Holst’s orchestral masterpieces, a bleak, ambitious depiction of Thomas Hardy’s ‘untameable, inviolate’ Egdon Heath.

Tracklist:

01. James Willshire – Variations on an Original Theme: Thema (Andante con moto) (01:22)
02. James Willshire – Variations on an Original Theme: Variation 1 (Poco più mosso) (00:42)
03. James Willshire – Variations on an Original Theme: Variation 2 (Scherzoso) (00:44)
04. James Willshire – Variations on an Original Theme: Variation 3 (Maestoso ma allegro) (01:01)
05. James Willshire – Variations on an Original Theme: Variation 4 (Andante serioso ed espressivo) (02:50)
06. James Willshire – Variations on an Original Theme: Variation 5 (Allegro giusto) (01:00)
07. James Willshire – Five Sketches: I. Prelude (01:36)
08. James Willshire – Five Sketches: II. Her Picture (01:51)
09. James Willshire – Five Sketches: III. Little Study (01:04)
10. James Willshire – Five Sketches: IV. Phantom (01:30)
11. James Willshire – Five Sketches: V. Retrospect (01:24)
12. James Willshire – Valse in D (02:55)
13. James Willshire – Sonata in C Minor: I. Allegro (07:56)
14. James Willshire – Sonata in C Minor: II. Andante con moto (04:24)
15. James Willshire – Trianon Gavotte (02:04)
16. James Willshire – Five Little Variations on an Original Theme: Theme (Poco andante) (00:42)
17. James Willshire – Five Little Variations on an Original Theme: Variation 1 (00:24)
18. James Willshire – Five Little Variations on an Original Theme: Variation 2 (Poco allegro) (00:18)
19. James Willshire – Five Little Variations on an Original Theme: Variation 3 (Vivo) (00:20)
20. James Willshire – Five Little Variations on an Original Theme: Variation 4 (Maestoso) (00:57)
21. James Willshire – Five Little Variations on an Original Theme: Variation 5 (Grazioso) (00:41)
22. James Willshire – Triste et Gai, Op. 10 (04:17)
23. James Willshire – Toccata, H. 153 (02:33)
24. James Willshire – Folk Song Fragments, Op. 46 No. 2, H. 166: I. O I Hae Seen the Roses Blaw (03:06)
25. James Willshire – Folk Song Fragments, Op. 46 No. 2, H. 166: II. The Shoemakker (00:51)
26. James Willshire – Chrissemas Day in the Morning, Op. 46 No. 1, H. 165 (02:58)
27. James Willshire – Two Pieces for Piano, H. 179: I. Nocturne (03:43)
28. James Willshire – Two Pieces for Piano, H. 179: II. Jig (02:52)
29. James Willshire – Egdon Heath: A Homage to Thomas Hardy, Op. 47, H. 172 (arr. Iain Farrington) (12:25)

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