Composer: Stephen Dodgson
Performer: Kate Howden, Joseph Shiner, Suling King, Jonathan Farey, Mana Shibata, Catriona McDermid, Magnard Ensemble
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0453
Release: 2019
Size: 1.43 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Sonata for Wind Quintet
01. I. Vivace
02. II. Lento e sostenuto
03. III. Allegro non troppo, giocoso
Gipsy Songs
04. No. 1, A Tattered Nation
05. No. 2, Ptolemy’s Bells
06. No. 3, The Lord Treasurer’s Fortune Is Told
07. No. 4, The Faery Beam upon You
Wind In the Reeds
08. I. Lively and Accented
09. II. Songful and Expressive
10. III. Bright and Playful
Sonata for Horn & Piano
11. I. Allegro non tanto
12. II. Andantino
13. III. Moderato e maestoso
Trio for Oboe, Bassoon & Piano
14. I. Prelude
15. II. Fly-by-Night
16. III. Variations
5 Minutes for Wind Quintet
17. I. First Light
18. II. Scamper
19. III. Sommeil
20. IV. Mischief
21. V. Pigeon Chorus
This fourth album in the Toccata Classics survey of the chamber music of London-born Stephen Dodgson (1924–2013) offers a first installment of his many works for woodwinds. Much of it brings Dodgson’s sense of fun to the fore, often through rhythmic mischief or an insouciance that recalls Poulenc, but it also has that particularly English strain of lyricism that suggests the impermanence of beauty. British composer and broadcaster Stephen Dodgson’s prolific musical output covered most genres, ranging from opera and large-scale orchestral music to chamber and instrumental music, as well as choral works and song. He wrote in a tonal, though sometimes unconventional, idiom. Paul Griffiths, in The Oxford Companion to Music, writes that Dodgson “proved adept at producing likable, well-crafted music to order, often for unusual chamber ensembles.”