Matthew Schellhorn - Chamber Works - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

With this album, Matthew Schellhorn sheds new light on Herbert Howells as a truly significant20th-century composer for the piano. From the charming Summer Idyls, written before the composer began studies at the Royal College of Music, to the mature and subtle movements of the Petrus Suite, we encounter an extraordinary range of pianistic expression. Spanning over 60 years of Howells' compositional style, every track on this is a world premiere recording.

For over two decades, Matthew Schellhorn has championed the creativity of living composers through commissions and premières, bringing new music to a wider audience. This album draws together a selection of eclectic and captivating piano works united through shared interpretative insights and deep artistic connections.

In the first volume of this series (Naxos 8.571382), Matthew Schellhorn surveyed six decades of Herbert Howells' compositions for the piano. This second volume reprises the journey, tracing the composer's stylistic development from the charming poetic miniatures of his youth through to the resonant modal quirkiness of his later dances. The survey includes a centrally important work, the Sonatina of 1971, performed here in Schellhorn's own edition compiled from the manuscript sources, which includes variants not heard for half a century.