Herbert Howells is known mostly for his choral music, and the piano works heard here are not just rare but completely unknown; the booklet tells the story of their rediscovery. Howells aficionados may guess the composer, although they may have to wait to commit until the final Petrus Suite (1967-1973), from Howells' later years. The music spans more than six decades, with the Summer Idyls of 1911 dating from the composer's student period. However, for all that elapsed time and all of the evolution in Howells' other music, ...
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Herbert Howells is known mostly for his choral music, and the piano works heard here are not just rare but completely unknown; the booklet tells the story of their rediscovery. Howells aficionados may guess the composer, although they may have to wait to commit until the final Petrus Suite (1967-1973), from Howells' later years. The music spans more than six decades, with the Summer Idyls of 1911 dating from the composer's student period. However, for all that elapsed time and all of the evolution in Howells' other music, these keyboard works have much in common. They are neoclassic pieces that take the more antique mode of Debussy and Ravel as a point of departure, adding, especially in the later pieces, a bit of the characteristic dryness of Howells, or expanding into more dissonant expression. Finzi: His Rest, is a beautifully quiet, Bachian-contrapuntal memorial to that deceased composer. Pianist Matthew Schellhorn deserves credit for respecting the intimate dimensions of this music, although Naxos...
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