Roy Agnew - Piano Music (Stephanie McCallum)

Information

Composer: Roy Agnew

• (01) Rhapsody
• (02) Toccata
• (03) Two Pieces for Piano
• (05) Three Preludes
• (08) A Dance Impression
• (09) Drifting Mists
• (10) Sonata
• (11) Etude
• (12) Three Poems
• (15) Sonata Poème
• (16) Three Lyrics
• (19) Elf Dance: Etude
• (20) A May Day
• (21) Australian Forest Pieces

Stephanie McCallum, piano
Date: 2019
Label: Toccata Classics
https://toccataclassics.com/product/roy-agnew-piano-music/

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Review

A once-acclaimed composer gets his overdue recognition.

Roy Agnew has the distinction of being one of the few Australians in the early 20th century to receive international recognition. Acclaimed Australian pianist and pedagogue Stephanie McCallum has provided an excellent introduction to his solo piano works, many of which receive their first recording here.

These selections were primarily completed in the 20s and 30s, but his wonderful Australian Forest Pieces were composed on the eve of the First World War in 1913. After one recital in 1928, a reviewer said Agnew’s compositions “have a sombre strain, and much of the modern idiom in melody and harmony. They reveal a clever aptitude in construction and contrapuntal device.” Agnew drew upon many influences and created an original and appealing style that was both sentimental and daring. His Rhapsody combines a soaring lyricism in the right hand with a murmuring, confused bass pedal in the right. The Toccata, dedicated to his wife, is a complex, dramatic work. McCallum has included several miniatures – Agnew wrote many – which range from the ruminative and moody to the passionate and energetic.

The album ends with Agnew’s playful and picturesque Australian Forest Pieces, here given an authoritative performance. McCallum brings her talent and virtuosity together with a keen sense for historical significance and enjoyment, on a disc that belongs in the collection of every connoisseur of Australian music.

-- Ben Wilkie, Limelight Magazine

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Roy Agnew (23 August 1891 – 12 November 1944) was an Australian composer and pianist who was considered by some the most outstanding Australian composer of the early twentieth century. Born in Sydney, Agnew came to London in 1923 and studied with Gerard Williams and Cyril Scott at the Royal College of Music. For many years he compered weekly programs for Australian Broadcasting Commission. Most of his work was written for solo piano, with only occasional ventures into orchestral or other forms. Agnew's most important works are generally considered to be his six piano sonatas.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Agnew

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Stephanie McCallum (born 3 March 1956 in Sydney, Australia) is a classical pianist. She studied with Alexander Sverjensky and Gordon Watson at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, and with Ronald Smith in the UK. McCallum has released 18 solo CDs, of works by Erik Satie, Ludwig van Beethoven, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Franz Liszt, Robert Schumann, Carl Maria von Weber, Albéric Magnard, Pierre Boulez, and Iannis Xenakis among others. She has made a particular specialty of virtuosic nineteenth century music, making a specialty of Alkan and other music by French composers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_McCallum

http://www.stephaniemccallum.com/

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