George Rowley

Ivor Gurney’s songs (Naxos 8572151) have long earned him renown but his works for piano, composed over the period of a decade, are hardly known. The lyrically beautiful Five Preludes reflect influences as wide as Schumann and Scriabin but preserve Gurney’s expressive freshness. The Sonatas nos. 1 and 3 inhabit very different sound worlds from each other, and only one movement of Sonata no.2 has survived, a deeply poignant elegy – all of which are heard here in world-premiere recordings. His poem for piano, Autumn, offers further opportunity to discover this rarely heard music by a composer for whom the pursuit of beauty was of the utmost importance.

Gurney is best known for his songs and Naxos has a song recital available on 8572151: ‘[There are] many favourites, and many discoveries here: none of them to be missed’ (BBC Music Magazine). His arrangement of The Trumpet can be heard on Naxos 8573426, coupled with works by Butterworth, Finzi and Vaughan Williams. Played by Philip Lancaster, BBC Music Magazine wrote that it is a ‘high point of this disc’.

Pianist George Rowley has performed throughout the UK and abroad, including appearances at the Winchester Festival, Holywell Music Room and the Liddell Concert Series. He has reached the final stages of many competitions including the Brighton and Hove Concerto Competition, the Intercollegiate Piano Competition (Beethoven Piano Society of Europe) and the Sir Ian Stoutzker Prize.

• Gurney: Five Preludes for piano
• Gurney: Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor
• Gurney: Piano Sonata No. 2 in D major: II. Adagio
• Gurney: Piano Sonata No. 3 in D minor
• Gurney: Poems (2) for Piano: No. 1, Autumn