Ireland - Piano Works Volume Two [Parkin]

Ireland is in a world all of his own, especially his piano music, it's his most prolific genre, these are not major statement like Beethoven, nor works of brilliance and beauty like Chopin, or even impressionist like Debussy and Ravel, rather he was quite plain, his music can sound amateurish, almost whimsical at times, as if he's composing for children, but there's also a depth there, some pieces come off better than others, but there's gems to be had for those that truly search, once you get a real taste for him, you can't put him down, this disc appeared in my Blog nearly five years ago [2nd May 2010].

Eric Parkin is English, now 91, he recorded this disc in 1992, Ireland was mainly a Londoner between the two World Wars, and had a tendency to compose with his surroundings in mind, one of the reasons for the booklet cover, showing a picture of the Thames upstream from Chelsea, a sepia toned black & white shot, love the haziness of it, the light on the river, and an almost silhouette of the boats and streetlight, this must have been shot from an open topped bus of the times, don't know how else you can get that high up near the pavement, the layout and lettering are fantastic, a wonderful series.

The two pieces i loved the most on this listening were Meridian [the second piece from 'In Those Days'], and The Darkened Valley, both hit the four minute mark, here's a synopsis of both,
Meridian [3:57] - An upbeat little tune, very simple tunewise at first, but there's always complexities with Ireland, and when Parkin starts to play the opening tune in a slower higher treble octave [0:28+ & 2:33+], the piece takes on its most revealing nature, and later the tune comes in full noble force [0:59+ & 3:05+], i love the way the opening tune reappears again and again, at the end there's a nice little nostalgic coda [3:36-3:55].
The Darkened Valley [4:03] - As the title suggests, this is a darker piece, again the tune is simple enough, there's an ominousness to the tune, then out of the blue there's a middle section which is brighter [1:27+], and yet even here there's subtle discord, Ireland weaves us back into the opening theme in a skillful way, there's no need for virtuoso piano playing, but the real skill is in conveying mood, and Parkin plays the piece slow enough to give it it's hesitating uneasiness, for instance Desmond Wright also plays this piece on an EMI disc i have, a lot quicker and louder [2:50], and it just misses the mystery and worry of the piece, his sounds quite happy!.

Ireland - Piano Works Volume 2 [Parkin]

This is volume 2 of Eric Parkin's take on the solo piano music of John Ireland, and in my mind this is the best of the three discs, also the booklet has that 'days gone by, never to return' look about it, it's a picture of Chelsea Reach, a stretch of the river Thames in London, a wonderfully atmospheric photograph, and completely in line with the music on the disc.

Last month i spoke about volume 1 by Parkin [4th April 2010], and there's gems to be had there for those that truly take the time to listen and digest, likewise there's gems to fall in love with here, i especially like the two opening pieces under the heading 'In Those Days', and on this listening track 12 'Equinox' is especially a tremendous miniature of just over 2 minutes, an evocation of midsummer storms on the Sussex Downs, it begins with a cascade of rippling notes raining down, gentle at first, but developing into a downpour [0:00-1:12], there's slight pauses in those rippling notes, but on the whole they're wonderfully relentless, a stormy tour de force, isn't the piano miniature such a wonderful expressive medium?.

Here's Eric Parkin playing Equinox on YouTube.

Ireland - Decorations [Parkin]

Well here's some piano works that are far from standard repertoire, and don't equate that with 'well it must be because they're not great', John Ireland is actually a very skillful piano miniaturist, some of his compositions are very much like Debussy [thinking his preludes here], and on each one of Eric Parkin's discs, there will at least be one gem you will fall 'head over heels' in love with.

Ireland's Decorations are wonderful, i was especially enchanted by the first piece 'The Island Spell', composed just before the First World War in Jersey, Ireland had a deep entrancement to the Channel Islands, and he spent quite some time there, gaining inspiration.

The piece starts off with a lovely evocation of bells [0:00-1:18], it is really really spellbinding, he starts using flats/sharps to add colour and variety [0:41], lots of black keys in this piece, and then what seems like scales up and down the keyboard [1:47-2:53], but if you watch the video below, they're more likes 'waves', after all this is a sea piece, at the same time Parkin/Ireland uniformly keeping the same spirit as the opening, the piece is slowly gaining in momentum and volume, there's a loud slightly stormy section, with some great virtuosic playing [2:53-3:40], and then comes the coda [3:40-4:12], a nice end to a surprising discovery of mine, Ireland is well worth checking out.

Here's Laura Tsai performing 'The Island Spell' on YouTube.