Composer: Percy Grainger, Charles Villiers Stanford, Richard Strauss
Performer: Marc-André Hamelin
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Hyperion
Catalogue: CDA66884
Release: 1996
Size: 208 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Grainger: Jutish Medley
02. Grainger: Colonial Song
03. Grainger: Molly on the Shore
04. Grainger: Harvest Hymn
Stanford: Four Irish Dances
05. IV. A Reel
06. Grainger: Spoon River
07. Grainger: Country Gardens
Grainger: Room-Music Tit-Bits
08. III. Walking Tune
09. I. Mock Morris
10. Strauss: Ramble on Love from Der Rosenkavalier
Grainger: British Folk-Music Settings
11. IV. Shepherd’s Hey
12. Grainger: Irish Tune from County Derry ‘Danny Boy’
13. Grainger: Handel in the Strand
Stanford: Four Irish Dances
14. I. A March-Jig ‘Maguire’s Kick’
Grainger: Old-English Popular Music
15. IV. The hunter in his career
Grainger: British Folk-Music Settings
16. XXXVII. Scotch Strathspey and Reel
17. Grainger: The Gum-Suckers March (from In a Nutshell)
18. Grainger: The Merry King
19. Grainger: In Dahomey ‘Cakewalk Smasher’
The solo piano music of Percy Grainger comprises about ninety works, many of which are transcriptions of earlier orchestral or instrumental compositions. Grainger was an inveterate arranger and transcriber of music: of his own compositions, of folk-music from around the world, and of works by masters from Bach and Dowland to Faur and Richard Strauss. Despite his apparently loathing the piano, it being ‘an affront to destroy a melodiously conceived idea by trying to fit it into the limitations of two hands and a box full of hammers and strings’, the nineteen works in this recital capture all the humour, charm and sheer bravado of such ‘dish-ups’ as Handel in the Strand, Country Gardens and the rest.