CD REVIEW
– LOCKDOWN
BLUES
PETER DICKINSON, piano
SOMMCD 0644
[68:37]
'
Another attractive
release from this
ever-enterprising label. Probably
the main interest for our readers
will be a tad under a the third
of the disc devoted to the first
recording of Edward Kennedy
'Duke' Ellington's 'Twelve
Melodies'. These popular
songs – including It
Don't Mean a Thing (If it
Ain’t Got That Swing), Sophisticated
Lady, Solitude, Mood Indigo
and In a Sentimental Mood
– have been arranged by the
pianist using the original sheet
music. So, they are quite
different from the classic jazz
versions.
Another
recognisable work will be the
American Edward MacDowell's To
a Wild Rose. French composer
Erik Satie's Trois
Gymnopédies, especially
No.1, will be familiar to some,
with his Trois Gnossiennes
less so.
Also, possibly not
so well-known are two pieces by
George Gershwin in Three-Quarter
Blues (Irish Waltz), which
in the 1980’s was used as
the signature tune for 'After
Henry' with Prunella Scales on
both BBC Radio 4 and then Thames
Television, and Who Cares?
from the musical 'Of Thee I
Sing'.
There are 31
tracks in all and include Peter
Dickinson's own compositions of
the Bach-inspired album title
tune, Freda's Blues and Blue
Rose, which Humphrey Burton
in the excellent booklet's
introduction describes as a
"bluesification" of the
MacDowell piece.
Particularly
catchy is Francis Poulenc's Pastourelle.
Not surprising that a 1932
recording of this by Vladimir
Horowitz had been a great sales
success. Other works are by
Constant Lambert, Samuel Barber,
Lennox Berkeley, Eugene Goossens
and John Cage, whose In a
Landscape at 7’38”
is the disc's longest single
item.
Peter Dickinson is
described, rather charmingly in
the booklet, as "a British
composer of the senior
generation". He is an
Emeritus Professor of two
universities, has given many BBC
broadcasts and also authored a
number of books about composers.
Value is added here by his
programme notes.
Credit, too, for
the choice of an adaptation from
a 1928 Art Deco advert for a New
York fashion house as the
booklet's front cover.
The effects of the
pandemic have led to a plethora
of solo piano albums and this,
with the Ellington and its
relaxing selection, rates highly
among them.
© Peter
Burt 2021
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