Rory Boyle: Solo Piano Music CD
In Rory Boyle’s sixtieth year, virtuoso pianist James Willshire’s debut recording pays birthday tribute, exploring the full gamut of Boyle’s compositional personality, from the cragginess of his finely wrought Sonata to the intensely human lyricism of Tatty’s Dance, itself a sixtieth-birthday present for Boyle’s wife. Dancing is also the subject of Boyle’s Piano Trio No 2 (Phaethon’s Dancing Lesson), in which Willshire is joined by his fellow members of the Bartholdy Trio.
“brilliantly sustained by [pianist] James Willshire - compelling listening” - The Arts Desk, May 2011
“While Boyle’s Scottish roots are never far away, his music has a strong, mainstream European, Stravinsky-based rigour, with its own brand of virile, challenging, but always comprehensible counterpoint, dissonance which is hard-fought yet never gratuitous, an unsentimental lyricism and unerring sense of architecture.” - Nicholas Cleobury
“a vibrant, all-consuming insight into a composer whose music, with its worldly scope, extends way beyond mere craftsmanship.” - The Scotsman, May 2011, FIVE STARS
Arrivals and Departures: Pour Beatrice 2:50 - James Willshire (piano)
Arrivals and Departures: Elegy on FS 2:05 - James Willshire (piano)
Arrivals and Departures: Berceuse for Bertie 3:12 - James Willshire (piano)
Arrivals and Departures: Flying 2:54 - James Willshire (piano)
Reeling 4:30 - James Willshire (piano)
Piano Sonata: Toccatas, Dances and Interludes 8:44 - James Willshire (piano)
Piano Sonata: Recitative and Dreams 7:01 - James Willshire (piano)
Piano Sonata: Games 4:47 - James Willshire (piano)
Capriccio on the Anniversary of a Beloved Master 6:09
Studies for the One in the Middle: Rondo 2:26 - James Willshire (piano)
Studies for the One in the Middle: Intermezzo 4:12 - James Willshire (piano)
Studies for the One in the Middle: Toccata 0:59 - James Willshire (piano)
Tatty's Dance 2:17 - James Willshire (piano)
Phaethon's Dancing Lesson 15:41 - Bartholdy Trio (piano trio)
