Wordsworth
Piano Sonata in D minor Op.13 (1939)
Cheesecombe Suite Op.27 (1945)
Ballade Op.41 (1949)
Valediction Op.82 (1967)
Wilson
Incanabula (1983)
McGuire
Prelude 7 (1983)
Six Small Pieces in C (1971)

Richard Deering (piano)

Heritage HTGCD142 [77’42’’]
Producer/Engineer Paul Arden-Taylor (Piano Sonata), Robert Matthew-Walker
Recorded 1985 at University of Wales, Cardiff, 2023 at Wyastone Concert Hall, Wyastone Leys, Monmouth

written by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Heritage here continues its extensive coverage of British music with a release of piano music primarily by William Wordsworth, complemented with short pieces by Thomas Wilson and Edward McGuire, all of them heard in idiomatic and insightful readings by Richard Deering.

What’s the music like?

Although his music is now relatively well covered in terms of recording (thanks to Lyrita and, more recently, Toccata Classics), Wordsworth remains a difficult composer to pin down – not least because this understated and often taciturn idiom does not lend itself to casual listening.

Piano music features prominently in his earlier output, notably a Piano Sonata that can rank with the finest such works from the inter-war period. Its initial movement is introduced by a Maestoso whose baleful tone informs the impetuous and expressively volatile Allegro that follows. The central Largamente probes more equivocal and ambivalent emotions before it leads directly into a final Allegro whose declamatory and often martial character is briefly offset by an aching recall of previous material, prior to a conclusion of inexorable power.

His status as conscientious objector saw Wordsworth engaged in farm-work during wartime, the experiences and friendships of this time being commemorated in the Cheesecombe Suite whose lilting Prelude and lively Fughetta frame a quizzical Scherzo then a Nocturne of affecting pathos. Written for Clifford Curzon, Ballade is a methodical study in contrasts that makes for an ideal encore; as, too, might Valediction, but here emotions run deeper and more elusively as befits this memorial to a lifelong friend written later in the composer’s maturity.

As with Wordsworth, Thomas Wilson was an incomer to Scotland (albeit from the United States rather than England), and Incanabula typifies the searching though accessible quality of his later music – the six sections unfolding as if variants on each other before concluding in a mood whose calmness does not preclude a degree of restiveness. Scottish by birth and among the most wide-ranging composers of his generation (not least through a half-century association with traditional group The Whistlebinkies), Edward McGuire has written widely for piano – notably a series of Preludes, of which the seventh integrates minimalist and folk elements into its fluid and cumulative overall design. Simpler as to form and expression, Six Small Pieces in C Major evoke Satie and Cage in their lucid textures and disarming naivete.

Does it all work?

It does, and not least when Deering is so evidently attuned to this music – having premiered the Wilson piece and MacGuire Prelude. Margaret Kitchin recorded those three earlier pieces by Wordsworth in the 1960s (Lyrita), and Christopher Guild recently set down all four items with various miniatures in his complete survey (Toccata), but those wanting the major works cannot go wrong with this anthology. Other than McGuire, booklet notes are by John Dodd – a tireless advocate of British music with whom this reviewer was fortunate to be acquainted.

Is it recommended?

Indeed. The sound has a clarity and focus such as belies the almost four decades between the two sessions, and this makes a worthwhile follow-up to Deering’s recent collection of piano music by Parry [HTGCD140-141]. Hopefully there will be further releases from this source.

Listen & Buy

You can explore purchase options at the Heritage Records website, and find out more about Richard Deering here. Meanwhile for more on the composers, click on the names William Wordsworth, Thomas Wilson and Edward McGuire.

Published post no.1,983 – Thursday 19 October 2023