Composer: Samuel Barber, Lennox Berkeley, John Cage, Peter Dickinson, Edward Kennedy ‘Duke’ Ellington, George Gershwin, Eugene Goossens, Constant Lambert, Edward Alexander MacDowell, Francis Poulenc, Erik Alfred Leslie Satie
Performer: Peter Dickinson
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Somm
Catalogue: SOMMCD 0644
Release: 2021
Size: 1.22 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Dickinson: Freda’s Blues
MacDowell: Woodland Sketches, Op. 51
02. No. 1, To a Wild Rose
03. Dickinson: Blue Rose
04. Lambert: Elegiac Blues
05. Dickinson: Lockdown Blues
Poulenc: 8 Nocturnes
06. No. 4, Bal fantôme. Lent, très las et piano
07. Barber: Canzonetta, Op. 48 (Arr. P. Dickinson for Piano Solo)
Berkeley: Six Preludes for Piano, Op. 23
08. No. 6, Andante
09. Gershwin: Three-Quarter Blues (From “After Henry”)
Poulenc: Pastourelle (L’Eventail de Jeanne No. 8)
10. No. 8, Pastourelle, FP 45b
Satie: Six Gnossiennes
11. No. 1, Lent
12. No. 2, Avec étonnement
13. No. 3, Lent
14. Gershwin: Who Cares? (From “Of Thee I Sing”) [Arr. for Piano Solo]
Goossens: Kaleidoscope, Op. 18
15. No. 10, Lament to a Departed Doll
Satie: Trois Gymnopédies
16. No. 1, Lent et douloureux
17. No. 2, Lent et triste
18. No. 3, Lent et grave
19. Ellington: It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing) [Arr. P. Dickinson for Piano Solo]
20. Ellington: (In My) Solitude [Arr. P. Dickinson for Piano Solo]
21. Ellington: Don’t Get Around Much Anymore (Arr. P. Dickinson for Piano Solo)
22. Ellington: Lost in Meditation (Arr. P. Dickinson for Piano Solo)
23. Ellington: I Never Felt This Way Before (Arr. P. Dickinson for Piano Solo)
24. Ellington: Sophisticated Lady (Arr. P. Dickinson for Piano Solo)
25. Ellington: In a Sentimental Mood (Arr. P. Dickinson for Piano Solo)
26. Ellington: Azure (Arr. P. Dickinson for Piano Solo)
27. Ellington: Do Nothin’ Till You Hear from Me (Arr. P. Dickinson for Piano Solo)
28. Ellington: Mood Indigo (Arr. P. Dickinson for Piano Solo)
29. Ellington: Day Dream (Arr. P. Dickinson for Piano Solo)
30. Ellington: Prelude to a Kiss (Arr. P. Dickinson for Piano Solo)
31. Cage: In a Landscape
“Lockdown Blues” is a collection of appealing piano miniatures compiled and performed by Peter Dickinson to chase all your cares away. “Lockdown Blues” includes soothing masterpieces by Erik Satie (Trois Gnossiennes, Trois Gymnopédies), Francis Poulenc (Bal fantôme, Pastourelle) and Edward MacDowell (To a Wild Rose), alongside Eugene Goossens’ melancholic Lament for a Departed Doll and Samuel Barber’s valedictory Canzonetta. There is whimsy in George Gershwin’s Three-Quarter Blues (familiar to British audiences as the theme to radio and television’s “After Henry”) and Who Cares? from the musical Of Thee I Sing.
Of interest are 12 iconic jazz tunes by Duke Ellington. Heard here in their original sheet-music versions, they are pure Ellington, the product of a sophisticated composer. Among featured classic songs are Solitude, Don’t Get Around Much Anymore, Mood Indigo and It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got That Swing).
In his introduction, renowned broadcaster and writer Humphrey Burton describes “Lockdown Blues” as “a delightful hour of discovery”, hailing the Ellington selections as “a real find that will surely be much anthologised long after Lockdown has been forgotten”. The programme is completed by three pieces by Dickinson – the titular Lockdown Blues, Freda’s Blues and Blue Rose, a take on MacDowell’s To a Wild Rose – together with Constant Lambert’s Elegiac Blues, Lennox Berkeley’s Prelude VI and John Cage’s Satie-influenced In a Landscape.