Stevenson / Guild - Ronald Stevenson: Piano Music Vol. 2 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

John McCormack - John McCormack Edition Vol. 5 [COMPACT DISCS] date 09/25/2007

The Scottish composer Ronald Stevenson (1928-2015) was a virtuoso concert pianist in the tradition of Beethoven, Liszt and Rachmaninov but, like his friend Percy Grainger, he was also fascinated by the folk musics of the world. This third album of his piano music juxtaposes his arrangements of Celtic - Breton, Cornish, Irish, Manx, Scots and Welsh - folk-songs and dances with his Chinese and Ghanaian Folk-Song Suites and his resourceful transcription of Grainger's visionary Hill Song No. 1 for wind band, here realized as an expansive tone-poem for the piano. This is the third installment of Christopher Guild's exploration of Ronald Stevenson's music - a crusade he will soon be extending to other Scottish composers.

Volume 18 of BRIDGE'S Paul Lansky series is a percussion spectacular, featuring the American mallet virtuoso, Gwendolyn Dease. The wide-ranging program includes a percussion solo, a percussion and violin duo, a percussion quartet, and a concerto for percussion and wind ensemble, all by the celebrated American composer Paul Lansky in honor of his 80th birthday. Assisting Ms. Dease are percussionists Ji Hye Jung, Jisu Jung, and Ayano Kataoka; violinist Yvonne Lam; and the Michigan State University Wind Symphony, Kevin Sedatole, conductor.