This is an astute mix
of the known and unknown. The four titles
italicised above in the headnote are
previously unrecorded examples of Gurney’s
piano writing. Juvenilia they aren’t,
though they show well enough the influences
on Gurney’s solo piano writing at the
time. By turns wistful (Despair)
and romantic, Sehnsucht (Longing)
is shot through with non-Albeniz influenced
Spanishry whilst Song of the Summer
Woods has a greater weight of harmonies
and chordal depth. The Sea sports
a fine, noble march song. The Nocturnes
in B and A flat wear their Chopinesque
spurs lightly though their Schumannesque
ones somewhat less so.
The Nocturnes and Preludes
have hitherto been familiar from the
recording made by the late and still
lamented Alan Gravill (on Gamut, coupled
with Elgar’s piano music). These date
from roughly a decade later than the
smaller works and Nocturnes. Gurney
was nearly thirty and the range and
modernity of influence has considerably
increased. There are hints of Fauré
in the D flat [No.2] whilst No.4 (in
the same key) is really very beautiful.
The Ninth is here in two versions –
the second version, completed in 1920
is a premiere recording.
Ferguson’s Sonata dates
from 1938-40 and was dedicated to the
memory of Harold Samuel, the great Bach
and Brahms player who had so abiding
an influence on Ferguson. First performed
by Ferguson’s colleague Myra Hess this
tough three-movement work’s continental
influence is far more pronounced even
than Gurney’s earlier, lighter, more
evanescent ones. The intangible, withdrawn
arch that is the first movement teems
with dramatic elisions whilst the Poco
Adagio embraces wide dramatic variety;
from treble delicacy to nuanced bass
the colours are plentiful. Determined,
resolute the finale is a clenched fist
of concentration, excellently realised
by Bebbington. The Bagatelles of 1944
defy their name. The first is astringent,
the second more ingratiating and lyric,
the third more confident and dramatic
and the fifth crisp, animated with a
quirkily mobile left hand.
The performances are
fully committed – I liked Bebbington’s
singing tone in the Gurney and the full
weight he gives to chordal outbursts
in the Ferguson sonata, as well as those
bass extensions that seem to explode
from the texture. He doesn’t quite get
to the heart of the Ferguson however
despite his best efforts. On headphones
Somm’s sound is rather clangorous at
points – noticeable in the octave above
middle C - but when you listen through
speakers it’s somewhat better, though
hardly sympathetic.
Jonathan Woolf
see also
review by Rob Barnett
Mark Bebbington (piano) 
