Ronald Stevenson: Music for Accordion
TOCC 0658 (Toccata Classics, CD)
DDD
FIRST RELEASE (6 October 2023)
Playing time: 61'11"
Tracks: 30
Booklet pages: 20
℗ 2023 Toccata Classics
© 2023 Toccata Classics
Main country of recording: United Kingdom
Country of manufacture: European Union
Reviewer: Esdras Mugatik
Review of Ronald Stevenson: Music for Accordion published on 18 April 2024
Listen: Ronald Stevenson: Celtic Lovesong: The Light and Dark of Love (A Celtic Cycle) (TOCC 0658 track 28, 0:01-0:56)
Neil Sutcliffe, accordion
Michael O'Rourke, percussion (tracks 2-15)
Rosie Lavery, soprano (tracks 23-27)
Ronald Stevenson (1928-2015):
The Harlot's House: Dance Poem after Oscar Wilde (1988)
1 Recitation: The Harlot's House
2 Lento, senza misura
3 Andante
4 Tempo di Valse -
5 Ragtime
6 Andante
7 Molto moderato
8 Sarabanda con maesta
9 Tranquillo con moto
10 Habanera - Tango
11 Allegretto
12 Totentanz
13 Lento assai
14 Tempo di Valse
15 Lento ma con moto
Ronald Stevenson, transcribed by Neil Sutcliffe:
South Uist (Hebridean) Folk-Song Suite (1969)
16 Sailing Song
17 A Witching Song for the Milking
18 A Little Mouth Music
19 Waulking Song
20 Spinning Song
21 A Tired Mother's Lullaby
22 The Christ Child's Lullaby
Five Songs
23 Bubblyjock (1966)
24 The Rose of All the World (circa 1966)
25 The Buckie Braes (1965)
26 Hallowe'en Sang (1965)
27 Day is Düne (1965)
Ronald Stevenson:
A Celtic Cycle (1984-1988)
28 Celtic Lovesong: The Light and Dark of Love
29 Celtic Lullaby
39 Peaceful March of the Ever Young
Ronald Stevenson (1928-2015) is best remembered for his huge output of music for the piano, an instrument he played with a rare understanding of tonal colour. It was thus entirely within character that he responded enthusiastically to the opportunity to explore the musical possibilities of the accordion, most impressively in a 'Dance Poem' of some scale. Stevenson was also an inveterate transcriber, producing hundreds of piano versions of pieces written for other forces. Neil Sutcliffe here returns the compliment, transcribing one of Stevenson's own piano works and five of his songs for accordion, pulling the classical world and Scottish traditional music a little closer together.
First recordings, made 15 and 16 December 2021 in the Ledger Recital Room, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow, UK.