William Alwyn: Piano Music 1

William Alwyn (Composer), Ashley Wass (Performer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Ashley Wass
• Composer: William Alwyn
• Audio CD (December 11, 2007)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Naxos
• ASIN: B000Y1BQUS
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #262,891 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ALWYN'S PIANO MUSIC, December 27, 2008

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Brian Murphy (Rochester Hills, MI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: William Alwyn: Piano Music 1 (Audio CD)

Both this and Vol. 2 of Alwyn's piano music contain little gems of great beauty. Marvelous music! Played with quiet sensitivity and subtle power.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Accessible and Intriguing Piano Music by William Alwyn, January 10, 2008

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: William Alwyn: Piano Music 1 (Audio CD)

It is good to see the music of William Alwyn (1905-1985) getting attention. He was probably best known as a film composer, at least in the US, and yet he wrote a great deal of concert music including a fair amount of piano music; he was himself a very fine pianist. This release is designated 'Volume 1', so perhaps we will be getting his entire pianistic output. The two works here that are the most substantial are the 'Sonata alla toccata' and the eleven 'Fantasy Waltzes.' Both have been recorded before by no less than the fabled John Ogdon, and those performances are marvelous but they are also in dated sound. Ashley Wass, a rising English piano virtuoso, seems these days to be recording a good bit of British music, including fine discs of music by Elgar, Bax and Bridge, and given his sensitive playing, this is to the good.

The 'Sonata all toccata' was written in 1946 and is in the usual three movements. The first movement's toccata-like allegro gives its name to the sonata as a whole. It is neoclassic in spirit and wholly romantic in its harmonic underpinnings. The andante is simple, serene, and songful. The third movement, molto vivace, is a whirl of modal triplets and cross-rhythms.

The 'Fantasy Waltzes' from 1954-56 are clearly Alwyn's highest pianistic achievement. Written roughly at the same time as his marvelous Third Symphony, they are his most sophisticated and virtuosic piano music; their clever construction does not interfere with their being just plain good fun. They partake some of their formal and harmonic characteristics of the waltzes of Chopin and Johann Strauss jr and from Ravel's 'La valse' and indeed have a number of barely concealed motivic and harmonic references to works by those composers. There is also explicit reference to the music of Grieg; indeed the set was inspired by a visit to Grieg's home at Troldhaugen. But these works are not pastiches; they are Alwyn through and through with the romantic and neoclassic, as well as impressionist, features that make up Alwayn's mature style. No. 3, the first to be written, is most clearly Grieg-like. Several of the waltzes are commentaries on the salon-style waltzes popular with amateur pianists of the earlier part of the twentieth century, but No. 5, on the other hand, is exceedingly complex, reminding one at times of Rachmaninov's late piano works. There is some tendency for Alwyn to alternate between lighter salon waltzes and the complexities of those like No. 5. Another complex waltz is No. 8, a light, almost frivolous-sounding thing whose measure-by-measure metric and tempo changes are masked by light-heartedness. It is followed by its polar opposite, marked 'lento e lugubre'. The series ends with No. 11, a presto with a slower middle section and a conclusion that glitters to a brilliant finish. Wass plays these gems with éclat and clear understanding of both their complexities and their simple charm.

The rest of the disc is filled mostly with occasional pieces, many of them written for the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, for which he was a long-time examiner. They are generally fairly negligible. One standout, though, is 'Green Hills', written while Alwyn was abroad and, according to Alwyn expert, John France, possibly reflects Alwyn's nostalgia for the 'Green and Pleasant Land' of his birth. It is an entirely lovely andante that sounds a bit like similar music by John Ireland. And I particularly liked 'Prelude and Fugue Based on an Indian Scale'.

This release is valuable primarily for the Sonata and the Fantasy Waltzes, not forgetting the charm of the other more minor works presented here. And Ashley Wass adds to his burgeoning reputation as a champion of British piano music with his fine performances. Sonics are excellent.

Scott Morrison

4.0 out of 5 stars Alwyn piano music - volume one, January 7, 2011

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jsa (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: William Alwyn: Piano Music 1 (Audio CD)

William Alwyn once said that he "loved the piano with an enduring love" and this fine anthology of his piano music certainly reflects that. The program opens on a strong note with the Sonata alla toccata (1946) a three movement work that reflects some of the neo-classical approach Alwyn adopted post-1939, blended with a healthy dose of romanticism. The three appealing works that follow, Green Hills, Cricketty Mill and Prelude and Fugue formed on an Indian Scale, have an English impressionistic cast to them. All of this music is immediately approachable and wears repeated listenings quite well.

Frankly the next four pieces, Haze of Noon, Harvest Home, Fancy Free and April Morn, are far less substantial, and after my first hearing I was not surprised to read that they are teaching works. They are trifles compared to what comes before, and especially after, which are the Fantasy Waltzes (1956), a set of eleven pieces that Alwyn wrote after an inspiring visit to Grieg's home at Troldhaugen. The Waltzes are very impressive and it's obvious Alwyn put a great deal of attention into composing them. Not surprisingly they owe some debt to Grieg's Lyric Pieces, but also Tchaikovsky's Seasons not to mention Ravel, Debussy and of course Chopin. None of this makes them derivative-sounding; quite the contrary, as Alwyn speaks in his own musical language.

All of this music is new to me - indeed none of the pieces excluding the Sonata, Green Hills and Fantasy Waltzes have been recorded before - so I have no basis for comparison with other performances. Ashley Wass is a fine pianist who specializes in works from the British repertory, so his expertise in this material is assumed. The recorded sound is also excellent.

I hate to award only four stars, but in my opinion the educational pieces do not warrant inclusion in an anthology as fine as this. Otherwise five stars all the way.