CD 1 [56:09]
Decorations (The Island Spell; Moonglade;
The Scarlet Ceremonies) (1912) [10:15];
The Almond Trees [3:33]; Four Preludes
(The Undertone; Obsession; The Holy
Boy; Fire of Spring) (1913-15) [11:03];
Prelude in E flat [5:14]; Rhapsody (1915)
[7:50]; The Towing-Path [3:40]; Merry
Andrew [3:02]; London Pieces (Chelsea
Reach; Ragamuffin; Soho Forenoons) (1917-20)
[11:32]
CD 2 [52:45]
Summer Evening (1919) [4:15]; Piano
Sonata (1918-20) [24:05]; Two Pieces
(For Remembrance, Amberley Wild Brooks)
(1921) [7:01]; The Darkened Valley (1921)
[3:42]; Equinox (1922) [2:22]; On a
Birthday Morning (1922) [3:19]; Soliloquy
(1925) [3:13]; Two Pieces (April, Bergomask)
(1925) [7:48]
CD 3 [51:04]
Sonatina (1926-27) [9:50]; Ballade (1929)
[9:26]; Two Pieces (February’s Child,
Aubade) (1929, 1930) [7:52]; Month’s
Mind (1933) [4:25]; Greenways: Three
Lyric Pieces (The Cherry Trees; Cypress;
The Palm and May) (1938) [8:01]; Sarnia
– An Island Sequence (Le Catioroc; In
a May Morning; Song of the Springtides)
(1939-40) [20:30]
Have you ever wondered
what it must have been like to roam
the lanes and fields of England in the
1930s and in those golden years before
the Great War? You can read that great
travel writer H.V. Morton, perhaps his
‘In Search of England’ and imagine it
from his vivid descriptions. But Oh,
how much more real it is, for me anyway,
to feel the period through the music,
and this is just what can often be achieved
with the orchestral and with the piano
music of John Ireland. The titles alone
evoke another era. ‘Amberley Wild Brooks’
(where I first heard a nightingale,
not far from the little Norman church)
where Ireland would gaze across the
meadows into the woodland. There’s ‘The
Towing Path’ and ‘The Darkened Valley’,
titles redolent of a deeply rural landscape.
Having lived in South
Sussex for three years and many a time
walked the South Downs near to his home,
and done the Ireland trail - not an
official one, just one which a composer
friend and I had devised - I feel quite
close to his sound-world and sources
of inspiration.
These recordings by
Eric Parkin were not the first put out
by Lyrita. A decade or so earlier Alan
Rowlands had recorded the piano music
on five LPs in mono. I have not heard
these but I have heard Alan play Ireland
live. He gives to the music a more impressionistic
sheen, which is beautiful. Parkin finds
a tougher, more granitic approach to
the works. Anyway these older recordings
are to appear Spring 2008, so we shall
soon see.
When listening to these
three CDs it is probably advisable to
take them in order because the music
is presented chronologically. For instance,
disc 1 opens with the pre-WW1 (just)
‘Decorations’, which surprises in that
it’s quite obviously Debussy in Sussex
or London. Here is where I remember
Rowlands scoring in his coruscating
delicacy of sound. Nevertheless Parkin
is impressive and handles the sustaining
pedal with a delicate subtlety. In a
way this is my favourite Ireland. I
want to linger with these early works
and am loath to move on … but I must.
Ireland is not just
a miniaturist. I should go on to the
major work for piano in Ireland’s output
the ‘Piano Sonata’. Before I do I must
take a little glance at some slightly
earlier works with London titles because
its not just Sussex which we associate
with Ireland. It’s also the Chelsea
area near the Thames in titles like
’Chelsea Reach’ and ‘Soho Forenoons’.
Also many works – like ‘Ragamuffin’
– were written in London even if it
is not directly evoked. Ireland had
a home in Chelsea for 55 years. By the
time he composed these pieces he had
a more individual ability to bring to
mind the gentle lapping of waves of
the Thames on a quiet afternoon without
resorting to Debussian whole tonality.
Nevertheless it’s this attention to
pianistic detail coupled with a rough,
slightly archaic power which can be
heard in the Piano Sonata; the question
is: which version?
Erik Parkin, like most
others, offers us the original version.
In 1951 Ireland revised it. I was wondering
to what extent these revisions were
important when a short but handy article
by John Talbot came my way - and indeed
the way of all members of the British
Music Society - (BMS Journal Vol.20
p.47). The 1951 edition has not been
republished despite the almost seventy
alterations. Nevertheless in the new
year the society will be releasing a
CD of this version to be played by Malcolm
Binns and very interesting it will prove.
For now I will only say that Erik Parkin
tackles this formidable work with passion
and panache. The composer apparently
knew that he had written a fine work.
John Talbot remarks that "Ireland’s
sonata is arguably the greatest single
example of its kind yet written by a
British composer." The excellent
CD booklet notes by the much lamented
Christopher Palmer, from the original
LP sleeves are somewhat more reserved,
simply stating that "Ireland sidesteps
none of the traditional formal issues".
Curiously enough a fine book, which
is a bit of a bible on John Ireland,
by Muriel V. Searle (Midas Books, Speldhurst,
1979), which was commissioned by the
friends of John Ireland, devotes only
a paltry paragraph to the work; far
less in fact than to ‘Amberley Wild
Brooks’. There are those who find little
in the sonata of interest. E.J. Moeran,
a long-standing friend of Ireland, remarked
on its ‘over-complexity of harmonic
texture’. Muriel Searle calls it rugged
and energetic, and talks of its ‘bold
contours’. I do not entirely feel a
strong enough ruggedness in this performance
and would like to hear the new version
on Naxos, by John Lenehan who has reached
volume three in his complete survey
of Ireland’s piano music.
Another landscape which
had strong associations for the composer
was the Channel Islands. This is reflected
in several works, not least, the three
late evocative pieces which constitute
the cycle he called ‘Sarnia’. This is
really a three movement tone-poem sonata,
written partially on Guernsey (which
is ‘Sarnia’) at the start of World War
2. It was completed in London circa
1940. This seems to be escapist music.
By this I mean escape into the world
I discussed at the start, that of the
1920s and 1930s; an England fast disappearing.
The ancient landscapes to which Ireland
was so sensitive vanishing under concrete
and the debris of war. After this Ireland
hardly wrote for the piano again, for
that most intimate of musical vehicles.
Perhaps he thought he could disguise
himself in his old world, but it longer
seemed to be relevant. From now on it
was to be film music which called him,
to a certain extent anyway, after 1945
- the music of a new world.
Anyone with a love
of British music should own a recording
of John Ireland’s piano music. Whether
it’s this version or the developing
Naxos one, or whether you wait for Alan
Rowlands I can’t say. Perhaps it’s because
I have grown up with Eric Parkin’s interpretation
but I genuinely feel that he gets to
the heart of almost all of the music,
especially the shorter pieces. I would
not want to be without these versions.
Gary Higginson
see also reviews
by Rob
Barnett and Jonathan
Woolf
for details
Eric Parkin (piano) 
