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TO 0009
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TO 0009

Milford: Piano Music and Songs

The Classical Shop
release date: July 2008

Originally recorded in 2008
Artists:

Phillida Bannister

contralto

Raphael Terroni

piano

Venue:

West Road Concert Hall, Cambridge


The Potton Hall Studio, Westleton, Suffolk



Producer:

Michael Ponder


Martin Anderson

(Executive)

Engineer:

Michael Ponder



Record Label
Toccata

Genre:

Piano


Vocal & Song

Total Time - 78:12
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ROBIN MILFORD

(1903-1959)
   
 

My Lady's Pleasure

 6:16  
  for piano  
1 Pastorale 2:35
2 Gavotte 1:50
3 Jig 1:51
   
 

Four Hardy Songs (Hardy)

 4:35  
4 No. 2, 'The Colour' 2:10
5 No. 4, 'Tolerance' 2:25
6 Cradle Song (Blake) 3:11
7 Daybreak (Donne) 1:52
   
 

Reputation Square

 13:35  
  for piano  
8 Matthew's and Welch's 2:11
9 Reputation Square 2:17
10 George's, and the New Wells Hornpipe 1:36
11 Trim the French 2:37
12 Jack in his Trousers 1:38
13 Jupiter in the Clouds 3:16
   
 

Four Songs (Bridges)

 8:56  
14 No. 1, 'So Sweet Love Seemed' 2:36
15 No. 2, 'Elegy' 3:56
16 No. 4, 'Love on my Heart' 2:24
   
 

Four Seasonable Songs

 2:52  
17 No. 2, 'Summer. Pleasure It Is' (Cornish) 0:49
18 No. 4, 'Winter. This Endris Night' (anon.) 2:03
   
 

Prelude, Air and Finale (on a well-known mordent)

 10:43  
  for piano  
19 Prelude 3:13
20 Air 3:29
21 Finale 4:00
   
 

Swan Songs

 21:31  
22 No. 1, 'Sng of St Mary the Virgin (The Magnificat)' 4:01
23 No. 2, 'The Song of Simeon (The Nunc Dimittis)' 1:29
24 No. 3, 'Idleness' (Young) 1:40
25 No. 4, 'Christmas Day' (Young) 2:23
26 No. 5, 'In Cornwall' (Ridler) 2:32
27 No. 6, 'Expectans expectavi' (Ridler) 1:43
28 No. 7, 'The Holy Tide' (Tennyson) 2:40
29 No. 8,. 'The Glance' (Herbert) 2:25
30 No. 9, 'Sleep' (Williams) 2:31
   
31 

Jenifer's Jingle

 3:05
  for piano  
32 

Days and Moments

 1:44
  II. Autumn: No. 4, 'An Epitaph' (Walter de la Mare)  


The music of Robin Milford (1903–59) taps into that distinctly English vein of pastoral melancholy. Lying on a continuum between the work of his friends Gerald Finzi and Ralph Vaughan Williams, Milford’s voice is nonetheless unique: lyrical, gentle, unemphatic – quietly individual. The dark lyricism of the songs on this CD, reflecting the composer’s troubled life, offers a striking contrast with the buoyant, folksong-inspired dances for solo piano – Milford at his happiest.


 

‘This is an excellent selection of piano music and songs by Milford […] For the performances by Raphael Terroni, I have nothing but admiration. He is both a technically proficient soloist, and an eloquent partner in the songs. Phillida Bannister… has a fine, deep, contralto voice, and a forthright manner of delivery. Her enunciation is excellent, too […]  All in all, it represents a real boon to fans of Milford, and an opportunity to draw more into the fold.’

Barry Brenesal

Fanfare - January/February 2009

                         ’Editor’s Choice’
‘Milford’s life was shot through with tragedy. It is a wonder, then, that he managed to compose music that was as filled with a sense of peace and joy as is much of what is on offer here. Phillida Bannister and Raphael Terroni do the composer proud and shed light on a canon that deserves wider hearing.’
 

Gramophone - October 2008

‘...deliciously poised... contralto Phillida Bannister sings with such infectious commitment and tangible projection. Terroni, too, accompanies with watchful sensitivity, and there can be no complaints about either Michael Ponder’s truthful production or Peter Hunter’s assiduously detailed notes. This generously filled anthology deserves every success.’

Andrew Achenbach

Gramophone - October 2008

‘...Robin Milford is one of those valuable English composers whose gifts are sadly overshadowed by more ebullient musical personalities that dominated the first half of the century… the voice of Englishness’

Patric Sandford

 

Music & Vision Daily - 27 September 2008

‘...a most handsomely performed, recorded and presented collection representing the lyric pastel-shaded English pastoralism with which Milford’s scores are imbued. His was a gentle muse yet one strongly rooted in the countryside and in words, their age-old history, meaning and nuance.’

Rob Barnett

 

MusicWeb - May 2008

‘...the solo piano music that Raphael Terroni plays with such sympathy and dexterity (beautifully recorded, too) is innocuous, unpretentious… The other 19 tracks, though, are devoted to Milford’s songs, and in some of them, at least, we are in another world. […] Phillida Bannister is excellent in capturing their latent bitterness, and whenever Milford offers the opportunity, she generates considerable intensity. Good contraltos are a low-profile breed these days: I warmed to her even tones and firm control.’

Piers Burton-Page

 

International Record Review - June 2008

‘...His music has been undeservedly neglected, so this CD is a welcome display of his beautifully crafted, solidly made and yet light and flexible piano music, played with real sparkle by Raphael Terroni.’

Stephen Pritchard

The Observer



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