Just as nostalgia fueled the revival of Scott Joplin's music in the 1970s, a fondness (real or imagined) for the period between the world wars seems to have renewed interest in the sparkling and sophisticated piano music of Billy Mayerl. Fans of British light music, ragtime, dance styles of the 1920s and '30s, sentimental ballads, and jaunty music hall songs will find aspects of all these and more in Mayerl's miniatures, which deny categorizations simply through their effusiveness and spontaneous invention. Mayerl's ...
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Just as nostalgia fueled the revival of Scott Joplin's music in the 1970s, a fondness (real or imagined) for the period between the world wars seems to have renewed interest in the sparkling and sophisticated piano music of Billy Mayerl. Fans of British light music, ragtime, dance styles of the 1920s and '30s, sentimental ballads, and jaunty music hall songs will find aspects of all these and more in Mayerl's miniatures, which deny categorizations simply through their effusiveness and spontaneous invention. Mayerl's cheerful wit and natural melodic grace may especially remind listeners of the music of Francis Poulenc, whose work was contemporary with Mayerl's and similarly blended from a variety of popular and serious genres into elegantly polished music. Pianist Eric Parkin recorded these remarkable gems between 1987 and 1991, and his three albums of Mayerl's music make up Piano Impressions, Chandos' 2005 compilation on three CDs. The performances are a pleasant mixture of sweetness, sprightliness,...
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