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)