Programme Note

Romance for recorder and piano is a new, and revised, version of a work (originally for clarinet and piano) written in 1964, when I was a first year student at the Royal Academy of Music. It was written for a fellow student, Robert Hill, who later became principal clarinet of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Romance is a short and simply structured piece in ternary form, with a cadenza inserted just before the contracted recapitulation. The stylistic influences can probably be traced to English romantics such as Ireland and Bax, whom I had obviously just discovered (the following year I was to commence studies with Alan Bush, himself a student of John Ireland).

Another version of the Romance, for recorder and string quartet, was specially made in 2004 for a commercial recording on the Campion label, performed by John Turner (the dedicatee), and the Camerata Ensemble.

Reviews

This is an attractive and compelling work from a significant composer of concert music.

American Recorder, March 2006

Written: 2004

Instrumentation:
recorder and piano

Genre: Instrumental

Publisher: Peacock Press

Duration: 6'

First Performance: 20 June 2005
Crush Room, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London, UK
John Turner (recorder), Stephen Bettaney (piano)