Composer: Helen Hopekirk
Performer: Gary Steigerwalt
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0430
Release: 2017
Size: 441 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Iona Memories
01. I. Wandering
02. II. Cronan: A Hushing Song
03. III. In the Ruins
04. IV. A Twilight Tale
Romance in A minor
05. Romance in A Minor
06. Serenade in F-Sharp Major
5 Scottish Folksongs
07. No. 1. Land o’ the Leal
08. No. 2. Turn Ye to Me
09. No. 5. Eilidh Bhan
10. Sundown
Serenata Suite for Piano
11. I. Maestoso
Suite for piano
12. I. Sarabande
13. II. Minuet
14. III. Air
15. Waltz in F-Sharp Major
2 Compositions for Piano
16. No. 1. Shadows
17. Robin Good-Fellow
2 Tone-pictures
18. No. 1. Dance to Your Shadow
19. No. 2. The Seal-woman’s Sea-joy
The Scottish musician Helen Hopekirk (1856–1945) was regarded as one of the major concert pianists of her generation. She also made a lasting contribution as a piano teacher in Boston, Mass., after her emigration in 1897. The early pieces can sound like Brahms in the Highlands, and her later works marry Debussyan Impressionism with Hebridean folk-music, to evocative, touching and exhilarating effect. This is the first album dedicated to her music. Gary Steigerwalt, who is writing a biography of Helen Hopekirk, recently retired as a professor on the music faculty of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where he taught for 35 years. He gave the first performance in over a century of her Concertstück with the Mount Holyoke College Symphony Orchestra in 2015.