Alfor's Rarities from the new PP

[rob]

The Algernon Ashton Sonatas are part way though being recorded!

See http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/c/Ashton and http://www.duttonvocalion.co.uk/

Alfred, thank you as ever for the neverending flow of extraordinary music and your amazing patience in scanning everyday and taking the trouble to post away without too many thanks. The 'pianomaniac' medal doesn't do you justice!

[alpha]

To my knowledge only a handful of sonatas does exist resp. has been published. Rumour has it that he composed 24 sonatas in all keys, but this obviously is not true. Being a prolific composer he may have intended to do so.

See the following, which has an Ashton works list including the publishers of each of the 8 piano sonatas: http://www.musicweb-international.com/Ashton/index.htm

[HullandHellandHalifax]

To my knowledge only a handful of sonatas does exist resp. has been published. Rumour has it that he composed 24 sonatas in all keys, but this obviously is not true. Being a prolific composer he may have intended to do so.

See the following, which has an Ashton works list including the publishers of each of the 8 piano sonatas: http://www.musicweb-international.com/Ashton/index.htm

I believe if my memory is still working that I read that the RCM or RAM in London should have copies of all the Ashton Sonatas. Whichever institution it was used to use these sonatas for sight-reading examinations for one of their diplomas, there was one occasion when that was impossible, when Harold Truscott (I think it was him) was put in for the diploma and refused to play them as he knew them all from memory.
regards
Brian

[fredbucket]

From Grove:

Ashton, Algernon (Bennet Langton)

(b Durham, 9 Dec 1859; d London, 10 April 1937). English composer and teacher. He spent his childhood in Leipzig. Ashton studied music under Franz Heinig and Iwan Knorr, and subsequently at the Leipzig Conservatory, with Jadassohn, Richter and Reinecke (theory and composition) and with Papperitz and Coccius (piano). In 1879, having won the Helbig composition prize, he briefly returned to England. He became a pupil of Raff. In 1885 he was appointed to teach the piano at the RCM, where he remained for 25 years.

Ashton’s compositions cover most conventional forms except for opera, but he was best known for his piano and chamber works; they include a series of 24 string quartets (now lost) in all the major and minor keys. His published music exceeds 160 works. In 1898 Hofbauer issued a catalogue of the first 100 opus numbers (published by a variety of German and British publishers); they include works for solo piano, piano trio, piano quartet and quintet, short choral works and songs. Ashton’s orchestral music, which includes five symphonies, overtures, an orchestral suite, a Turkish March, and violin and piano concertos, made no impression. They are believed to have been lost in World War II.

Truscott claimed Ashton's style was English, but the surviving piano works show a minor 19th-century composer influenced by Raff, Brahms and Schumann. The sonatas show considerable personality and are well worth investigation, the early ones in particular being memorable in invention and vigorous in execution.

Late in his life Ashton became something of a musical reactionary, underlining a natural pomposity evinced particularly in the hobby that obscured his merits as a teacher and composer: his passion for writing letters to the newspapers. His hobby-horses included the neglect of the graves of famous men, although his subjects were often musical, and the letters include much useful information. He published them in two collections: Truth, Wit and Wisdom (London, 1905) and More Truth, Wit and Wisdom (London, 1908).

[alfor]

Konstantin SOROKIN
Piano concerto op. 42 (2 piano score)

Sorokin PC op.42.pdf

Sergei PROKOFIEV
Andante from violoncello concertino op. 132 arr. V. Blok
Dmitry BLAGOY
Variations on a russian theme

Prokofiev Andante Blagoy Var.pdf

[alfor]

Damn cool show (and climate!) in South Africa!!
Damn hot in Germany!!

I remember Jacqueline du Pre and Friedrich Gulda
giving us a lecture how to keep cool ( ) on stage.
Anyone with the respective videos???

Thanks to all "supporters" of my thread.


Radu PALADI
Suita pentru pian (1951)

Paladi Suita.pdf

Pavel BORKOVEC
Suita pro klavir op. 10 (1931)

Borkovec Suita op.10.pdf

[alfor]

Otar V. TAKTAKISHVILI
Sonata

Taktakishvili Sonata.pdf

Cesar Perez SENTENAT
Suite Cubana en sol menor

Sentenat Suite Cubana.pdf

[alfor]

Tichon KHRENNIKOV
Piano concerto No. 1 op. 1 (full score)

Khrennikov PC op.1 full score.pdf

audio:
DITO

[alfor]

Tichon KHRENNIKOV
Piano concerto No. 1 op. 1 (2 piano score)

Khrennikov PC op.1.pdf

audio:
Tichon KHRENNIKOV
Piano concerto No. 1 op. 1

[alfor]

Revol Samuilovic BUNIN
Concerto for piano and chamber orchetra op. 34 (2 piano score)

Bunin PC.pdf

Zara Alexandrovna LEVINA
3 piano pieces: Lullaby, Dance, TOCCATA

Levina 3 pieces.pdf

I have a very positive feeling towards this composer, although I am admittedly neither able to say,
whether she was an upright character, nor if she managed to live
an honourable life under the soviet regime.