A Bad Night in Los Angeles Mark Bebbington

• Robert Matthew-Walker (b. 1939): Nocturne & Aubade, Op. 154:
• 1 Matthew-Walker: Nocturne & Aubade, Op. 154: No. 1, Reflection at Midnight 04:21
• 2 Matthew-Walker: Nocturne & Aubade, Op. 154: No. 2, Toccata on Three Notes 01:14
• Three American Pictures, Op. 157:
• 3 Matthew-Walker: Three American Pictures, Op. 157: I. Break Dancing at Washington Square 02:42
• 4 Matthew-Walker: Three American Pictures, Op. 157: II. At Gershwin's Grave 03:32
• 5 Matthew-Walker: Three American Pictures, Op. 157: III. A Bad Night in Los Angeles 05:30
• The Evening of Memory, Op. 200:
• 6 Matthew-Walker: The Evening of Memory, Op. 200 09:55
• 5 Children's Pieces, Op. 95 "Battledore":
• 7 Matthew-Walker: 5 Children's Pieces, Op. 95 "Battledore": No. 1, March 00:30
• 8 Matthew-Walker: 5 Children's Pieces, Op. 95 "Battledore": No. 2, Swings 00:48
• 9 Matthew-Walker: 5 Children's Pieces, Op. 95 "Battledore": No. 3, Running About 00:26
• 10 Matthew-Walker: 5 Children's Pieces, Op. 95 "Battledore": No. 4, Boats Across the Lake 00:55
• 11 Matthew-Walker: 5 Children's Pieces, Op. 95 "Battledore": No. 5, Follow-My-Leader 00:31
• Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 34 "Fantasy-Sonata, Hamlet":
• 12 Matthew-Walker: Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 34 "Fantasy-Sonata, Hamlet" 16:09
• Divertimento on a Theme of Mozart for Piano Duet, Op. 57:
• 13 Matthew-Walker: Divertimento on a Theme of Mozart for Piano Duet, Op. 57 08:21
• Fantasy on a Theme from Malcolm Arnold, Op. 208:
• 14 Matthew-Walker: Fantasy on a Theme from Malcolm Arnold, Op. 208 06:56
• The Fields Are White Already, Op. 153 (In Memoriam John McCabe):
• 15 Matthew-Walker: The Fields Are White Already, Op. 153 (In Memoriam John McCabe) 13:03
• Total Runtime 01:14:53

Info for A Bad Night in Los Angeles

SOMM Recordings is delighted to announce A Bad Night in Los Angeles, a disc of music for solo piano and piano duet by Robert Matthew-Walker, with Mark Bebbington partnered by Rebeca Omordia.

Matthew-Walker has been an influential part of the classical recording industry for more than 50 years, running marketing and publicity departments for leading labels CBS and RCA, and as editor of Musical Opinion magazine since 2009.

A Bad Night in Los Angeles features first recordings of eight works composed between 1980 and 2021, including the title track – “disco dance music for the piano” – one of Three American Pictures offering vibrant impressions of the City of Angels and New York.

The earliest, substantial work, Fantasy-Sonata: Hamlet, dedicated to Hans Keller, is “neither programmatic nor a character portrait”, says the composer who describes it as “a metaphysical work”. The Evening of Memory is a contemplative piece inspired by a comment by the American General Douglas MacArthur, Nocturne and Aubade two contrasting miniatures for left-hand, Battledore, a five-part suite for children.

Completing the disc are tributes to other composers: The Fields are White Already “a contemplation for solo piano in memoriam John McCabe”; Fantasy on a Theme from Malcolm Arnold built around the older composer’s name; and Divertimento on a Theme of Mozart “an aphoristic patchwork” for piano duet suggested by the F major Sonata (K.533)

Robert Matthew-Walker studied with Darius Milhaud, has produced more than 130 recordings and published many books, subjects ranging from Muhammad Ali and David Bowie to Rachmaninov, Havergal Brian and Grieg.

Mark Bebbington has recorded extensively for SOMM. His previous collaboration with Rebeca Omordia, The Piano Music of Ralph Vaughan Williams (SOMMCD 0164), was hailed by MusicWeb International as “spellbinding”. Gramophone declared it possessed “unremitting logic, sweep and concentration that thrill to the marrow”.

Mark Bebbington, piano
Rebeca Omordia, piano

Mark Bebbington
The critical plaudits that have greeted Mark Bebbington’s performances and recordings have singled him out as a British pianist of the rarest refinement and maturity (“Bebbington is without doubt one of Britain’s finest pianists”, wrote Michel Fleury recently in Classica).

Internationally recognised as a champion of British music, in particular, Mark has recorded extensively for the Somm label to critical acclaim, with no fewer than nine of his recent CDs awarded 5***** by BBC Music Magazine. His most recent recordings include piano works by Arnold Bax and Harriet Cohen (an April 2019 Gramophone magazine ‘Editor’s Choice) and Vaughan Williams, which reached number 4 in the UK classical charts, three British Piano Concertos with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, and an all-Gershwin album with Leon Botstein and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (‘Recording of the Month’ from MusicWeb International). His 2020 Poulenc release with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Jan Latham Koenig is the first in a French music series for Resonus Classics label.

A CD of Concertos by Grieg (including the première of his sketches for a Second Piano Concerto, edited by Robert Matthew-Walker) and Delius with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Jan Latham Koenig was released in April 2018 and became ‘CD of the Week’ in The Times and Mail on Sunday. His première recordings include one of Arnold Bax’s Piano Concertino coupled with John Ireland’s Piano Concerto and Legend, and premières of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia and William Mathias’ first two Piano Concertos (Ulster Orchestra). In addition to concerto recordings, Mark completed his John Ireland and Frank Bridge solo piano series and released a CD of William Alwyn’s piano works in 2016. As well as his BBC Music Magazine success, he has won Gramophone magazine’s ‘Editor’s Choice’, International Record Review’s ‘Outstanding’ accolade and many others. International Piano Magazine wrote of him, “Bebbington’s revivals of British piano music are second to none; he could well be dubbed the concert pianists’ Richard Hickox. Bebbington has almost single-handedly demonstrated that 20th-century British piano scores have an exciting role to play in the concert hall and recording studio”.

Over recent seasons Mark has toured throughout Central and Northern Europe and in the United States (both as recitalist and as soloist with some of the world’s leading orchestras), as well as the Far East and North Africa. In 2017 he made his Carnegie Hall debut with Leon Botstein and the American Symphony Orchestra and also appeared with the Buffalo Symphony Orchestra and on tour with the Israel Camerata and Czech National Orchestra. Within the UK, he has appeared in concertos with the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestras, Flanders Symphony Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, Orchestra of the Swan and BBC Concert Orchestra. He has featured both as soloist and recitalist on BBC Television and Radio and also on major European Television and Radio networks.

Mark studied at the Royal College of Music where he was a recipient of numerous international awards and prizes, including a Leverhulme Scholarship, a Winston Churchill Fellowship and the Ivan Sutton Recording Prize – the latter awarded to the one outstanding graduate of the combined London Music Colleges. He later studied in Italy with the legendary Aldo Ciccolini.

This album contains no booklet.