Composer: Ronald Stevenson
Performer: Christopher Guild
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Release: 2015
Size: 181 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Stevenson: A Wheen Tunes for Bairns tae Spiel
01. No. 1. Croon
02. No. 2. Drone
03. No. 3. Reel
04. No. 4. Spiel
Stevenson: A Modern Scottish Triptych
05. No. 1. Keening Song for a Makar: In Memoriam Francis George Scott
06. No. 2. Heroic Song for Hugh MacDiarmid
07. No. 3. Chorale-Pibroch for Sorley MacLean
Stevenson: South Uist Folksong Suite
08. I. Sailing Song: Lively, jolly, robust
09. II. A Witching Song for the Milking: Allegro
10. III. A Little Mouth Music: Allegro alla danza
11. IV. A Waulking Song: Moderato
12. V. Spinning Song: Allegro corrente
13. VI. A Tired Mother’s Lullaby: Andante stanco
14. VII. The Christ Child’s Lullaby: Andante semplice
15. Stevenson: A Rosary of Variations on Seán Ó Riada’s Irish Folk Mass
Stevenson: Scottish Folk Music Settings
16. No. 1. John Anderson, my Jo
17. No. 2. Waly, Waly
18. No. 3. A Rosebud by my Early Walk
19. No. 4. Lang hae we Pairted Been
20. No. 5. From an Old Pibroch
21. No. 6. Ca’ the Yowes
22. No. 7. Jock o’ Hazeldean
23. No. 8. The Hielan Widow’s Lament
24. No. 9. Hard is my Fate
25. No. 10. Ne’erday Sang
The Scottish pianist Ronald Stevenson, now 86, is the Grand Old Man of Scottish music.
A composer-performer in the grand tradition of Beethoven, Chopin and Rachmaninov, he has written a huge quantity of music for his own instrument, the piano.
It ranges from tiny miniatures to his best-known work, the monumental Passacaglia on DSCH.
This first of a series of recordings by the young Scottish pianist Christopher Guild begins with an album inspired by the music of Scotland itself and her Celtic neighbour, Ireland, and contains some exquisitely beautiful music.
A strong advocate of contemporary and lesser-known repertoire, Christopher Guild recently began a survey of the piano works of Scottish composer Ronald Center: his first CD was released by Toccata Classics in September 2013. The late Calum MacDonald, writing in International Record Review, commented: ‘The rhythmic vivacity and crispness of his delivery, the subtlety of his pedalling, the incisiveness of attack with never a hint of heaviness, and his range of keyboard colour are such that I’m sure the composer himself would have applauded […]. All in all this is a splendid achievement’. Born in Elgin in 1986 and brought up on Speyside, in 2011 he gained a First Class BMus (Hons), and the MMus and Artist Diploma’s with Distinction. He is now on the staff of the Godolphin School in Salisbury.