John White: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2 Jonathan Powell

• John White (b. 1936):
• 1 Piano Sonata No. 105 03:05
• 2 Piano Sonata No. 106 03:25
• 3 Piano Sonata No. 107 07:03
• 4 Piano Sonata No. 120 02:51
• 5 Piano Sonata No. 123 03:49
• 6 Piano Sonata No. 127 05:25
• 7 Piano Sonata No. 131 02:36
• 8 Piano Sonata No. 132 02:57
• 9 Piano Sonata No. 133 04:37
• 10 Piano Sonata No. 136 04:12
• 11 Piano Sonata No. 138 05:31
• 12 Piano Sonata No. 139 04:06
• 13 Piano Sonata No. 146 03:07
• 14 Piano Sonata No. 147 03:02
• 15 Piano Sonata No. 152 02:48
• 16 Piano Sonata No. 153 01:51
• 17 Piano Sonata No. 156 02:35
• 18 Piano Sonata No. 164 04:41
• Total Runtime 01:07:41

Info for John White: Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2

“I write a lot for piano for two main reasons: being a pianist allows me to be in touch with a rich and exciting repertoire, which gives me a great variety of role models in terms of vo-cabulary and gesture with which to formulate and ‘clothe’ the ideas which come to me and seem to need expression. Being an idealistic rather than a “career” composer, I find the piano a handy vehicle for the uttering (‘outering’) of compositional thought, in that the inspiration goes directly into a performable medium without the salesmanship required for getting ensem-ble pieces played.” (John White)

f any composer from the last hundred years can be said to have redefined the piano sonata, that composer is John White. A unique figure in British music, his vast compositional output documents a long involvement with the worlds of dance, theatre, experimentalism and electronica as well as with that of the concert hall.

His 180 piano sonatas cover a more or less continuous period from No.1 (1956) to the present day, but with gaps, and no less than thirty-four date from 1973.

An overall view would inevitably attempt to divide them into groups, successfully to a degree, although this is less easy in recent years as they have become more varied and relatively sporadic. More often than not, they have been composed without either request or any specific performance in mind, as is indicated in his introduction (left). As such, in contrast to other areas of his output, they can be regarded as ‘semi-private’ pieces—entries in a diary rather than public statements perhaps. ...

Jonathan Powell, piano

Jonathan Powell
is a pianist and composer. After studies with Denis Matthews and Sulamita Aronovsky, he established an international career as a soloist, his programmes ranging from standard Classical and Romantic repertoire to contemporary and little-known 20th century works. He has performed widely in Europe, as well as in Russia and the US; he has also appeared on national radio of many countries and recorded about 20 CDs.

Over the last decade, concert work has taken him to New York, the Musica Nova Festival in Helsinki, the Festival Radio France et Montpellier, Festival de Chaillol (Hautes-Alpes France), the Raritäten der Klaviermusik am Schloss vor Husum, the Reggello Festival (Italy), Vredenburg Muziekcentrum in Utrecht, De Toonzaal in ‘S Hertogenbosch, Gigant in Apeldoorn, and concerts in the Conservatoire and Russian Academy of Music in Moscow, and the Sheremetevsky Palace (St Petersburg), in the Altes Rathaus, Vienna (at the invitation of the Joseph Marx Society) and in masterclass and concert tours of Denmark. In the UK, his concerts have taken him to venues ranging from the Royal Festival Hall to university departments and local town halls.

He has recently appeared in many concert halls in Eastern Europe: since October 2010 he has undertook tours in Slovakia, the Czech Republic (including a residency at the Janacek Academy in Brno), Ukraine, Russia and Lithuania, performing repertoire ranging from John Field and Chopin, to contemporary music.

Powell has worked with many of today’s most prominent composers such as Ambrosini, Finnissy and Staud. As well as giving UK premières of pieces by Sciarrino, Feldman and Salonen, he has commissioned many new works.

Powell is a self-taught composer — he has recorded several of his own works for BBC broadcasts and has received performances by the London Sinfonietta, the Arditti Quartet, Valdine Anderson, Sarah Leonard, Darragh Morgan and Nicolas Hodges among others. His articles on many aspects of Russian music appear in the New Grove Dictionary of Music; his articles have been published by International Piano and the Finnish musicological journal Musiikki-lehti. He recently contributed to a book on the pianist-composer Samuil Feinberg, and co-edited the publication Rimsky-Korsakov and his Heritage.

This album contains no booklet.