Just discovered/Not played enough

[David Drinkell]

Just discovered - Cat Suite by Denis Bedard.  Well-written, not too difficult (although the last movement is unbelievably fast) and tastefully humorous.

Not played enough - the Hindemith Sonatas.

I have quite a lot of Rheinberger, acquired over the years, but I don't play much except for the Introduction and Passacaglia and the D flat sonata (learned with Garth Benson back in the seventies when I was a student).  Any recommendations?

[Nicolette]

Not played enough - Lamentation in c minor    Guilmant  (short and heart-rending: great for Lent/Good Friday)
                               

[David Drinkell]

Thanks, Nicola - I'll use that one.

I recently unearthed a piece which I'd forgotten but which I think is a gem: George Towers' Prelude on "Dafydd ap carreg wen", or "David of the White Rock".  It was originally published by Oecumuse, but was taken over by Fagus (www.fagus-music.com).  Something in the style of Whitlock's "Folk Tune" but a little easier to play.  The tune is gorgeous anyway, but the interludes are very well done and altogether, it's a lovely little piece.  I think it's better than Vaughan Williams' piece on the same melody, and that's the opinion of a full-blown RVW freak!

The composer was interesting.  George Towers was a graphic artist and was responsible, either personally or at a supervisory level for the illustrations in the Ladybird Books, which some of us will remember from our childhood (some of the Nature ones, like "The Countryside in Winter" were just terrific and the pictures make me think of home, even today, and the historical ones, such as that on Queen Elizabeth I, must have fired many a young imagination as they did mine).  In his spare time, Towers was a pillar of local music making in Loughborough and organist of the Baptist Church there.  I see from the Fagus catalogue that there are other pieces available.

[David Drinkell]

YouTube sent me a recommendation yesterday for a video of the Australian organist Pastor de Lasala playing Theodore Dubois' Marche-Sortie from the Sept Petites Pieces.  A very decent short postlude and not hard to play. The Priere from the same collection is nice, too.  Both available on IMSLP.

Pastor de Lasala (the name conjures up a priest in a hat with corks on, and a voice like Crocodile Dundee - sorry!) has some really excellent YouTube videos, especially of French baroque music played on authentic instruments (like Houdan).  today, I turned up Louis Couperin's Symphonie in D minor (trio).  Music also available on IMSLP (from the Bauyn MS), together with LC's Chaconne in G minor, which I've been playing ever since I heard it at Weingarten over 40 years ago.

Do have a look at the above if you don't already play them.

[David Pinnegar]

I was today writing to someone about the result of inspiration and . . . found https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD9FFPhyRd4

Hope you enjoy it.

Best wishes

David P