Composer: Roy Agnew
Performer: Stephanie McCallum
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0496
Release: 2019
Size: 1.26 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Rhapsody
02. Toccata
2 Pieces for Piano
03. No. 1, Whither
04. No. 2, Exaltation
3 Piano Preludes
05. No. 1, —
06. No. 2, —
07. No. 3, —
08A Dance Impression
09. Drifting Mists
10. Piano Sonata
11. Etude
3 Poems
12. No. 1, —
13. No. 2, —
14. No. 3, —
15. Sonata poème
3 Lyrics
16. No. 1, The Falling Snow
17. No. 2, A Quest
18. No. 3, The Happy Lad
19. Etude “Elf Dance”
20. A May Day
Australian Forest Pieces
21. No. 1, Gnome Dance
22. No. 2, When Evening Shadows Fall
23. No. 3, Forest Nymphs at Play
24. No. 4, Night in the Forest
25. No. 5, By a Quiet Stream
26. No. 6, The Forest Grandeur
Roy Agnew (1891–1944) – one of few early-twentieth-century Australian composers to gain international success – wove many external influences into a warmly Romantic personal style of striking variety and wide appeal, and his compositions, largely for the piano, are startlingly virtuosic, harmonically daring and charmingly sentimental by turn. Beautifully written by a natural pianist for his own instrument, they often recall the virtuosic textures of Liszt and Skryabin and occasionally show flashes of the Impressionist colours of Debussy. This is the fifth album that Stephanie McCallum – Associate Professor in piano at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music – has recorded for Toccata Classics. The four earlier ones all focused on French composers: Alkan, Boëly and Ropartz. Now she turns her considerable talents to rescue a forgotten composer from her native Australia.