Piano & Organ Concertos
Howard Shelley (piano), Meriel Dickinson (mezzo-soprano), Jennifer Bate (organ), BBC Symphony Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, London Concert Choir, David Atherton, Nicholas Cleobury
The British composer Peter Dickinson was born at Lytham St. Annes, Lancashire. His sister, Meriel Dickinson, is the mezzo-soprano with whom he had a long performing partnership. He has also been a long time contributor to The Gramophone Magazine. His reviews are signed PD. He went to The Leys School, Cambridge, was Organ Scholar of Queen's College, Cambridge, and then spent three formative years at Juilliard, where he was a pupil of Bernard Wagenaar and a contemporary of Philip Glass and Peter Schickele. During this period he was a critic on the Musical Courier and the Musical Times; taught at Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey and became interested in American music of all kinds. He returned to England in 1961 where he held various teaching jobs. In 1974 he became the first professor of music at Keele University, Staffordshire, where he set up the new department along with its Center for American Music. Today he is head of music at the Institute of United States Studies, University of London. He has also written books on the composer Sir Lennox Berkeley, with whom he studied and the British novelty pianist, composer and educator, Billy Mayerl. The two concertos originally appeared on EMI.
Track Listing
| Title | Composer | Performer |
|---|---|---|
| Piano Concerto | Peter Dickinson | BBC Symphony Orchestra, David Atherton, conductor, Howard Shelley, piano |
| Outcry: A Cycle of Nature Poems for contralto Solo, Chorus and Orchestra | Peter Dickinson | Meriel Dickinson, mezzo, London Concert Choir, City of London Sinfonia, Nicholas Cleobury, conductor |
| Organ Concerto | Peter Dickinson | Jennifer Bate, Organ, BBC Symphony Orchestra, David Atherton, conductor |
Reviews
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"...Long available on CD (and for a while on LP), it was fairly recently deleted. But now, thankfully, Albany has reissued it. In their original release, on EMI, these performances were reviewed in Fanfare by Paul Rapoport. He found the Organ Concerto "fascinating"and the Piano Concerto "even more effective."I am no less enchanted by these concertos than was Rapoport, having lived with them for more than 12 years. The Piano Concerto grabs you right away with hammered, rising chords - setting up the listener for a late-Romantic adventure. But nothing of the sort.....The Organ Concerto is an earlier but similar work...This is a top-notch CD, and by the end of the year possibly a Want List recommendation."
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