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- Edward Gregson
Tributes (2010)
- Novello & Co Ltd (World)
Programme Note
I completed Tributes in the summer of this year. Lasting some 16 minutes, there are five pieces in the set, each dedicated to a different composer and a different clarinettist (with whom I have had long musical associations). Each of the dedicatee composers wrote wonderfully for the clarinet and as a tribute to them I have tried to invade, indeed imitate, their stylistic worlds in these pieces. They are as follows:
1. to Francis Poulenc (for Emma Johnson) – a rather dreamy toccata, lyrical in feel, but interrupted by typically quirky and disruptive rhythmic episodes.
2. to Gerald Finzi (for John Bradbury) – slow and lyrical with long melodic arches.
3. to Igor Stravinsky (for Linda Merrick) – asymmetric rhythms dominate, with wide leaps in the solo line and bitonal harmony on the piano.
4. to Olivier Messiaen (for Nicholas Cox) – based on the ravishing slow movement for cello in his Quartet for the End of Time, a seamless melody is woven around ever-changing repeated chords on the piano.
5. to Béla Bartók (for Michael Collins) – the most virtuoso of the set; after a slow introduction, a swirling folk-like dance unfolds, mirroring Bartok’s penchant for simple modal shapes and ostinati rhythms.
In particular, I have had a long association with Michael Collins. I wrote my Clarinet Concerto for him in 1994, which was broadcast and recorded by him.
Edward Gregson - 2010
1. to Francis Poulenc (for Emma Johnson) – a rather dreamy toccata, lyrical in feel, but interrupted by typically quirky and disruptive rhythmic episodes.
2. to Gerald Finzi (for John Bradbury) – slow and lyrical with long melodic arches.
3. to Igor Stravinsky (for Linda Merrick) – asymmetric rhythms dominate, with wide leaps in the solo line and bitonal harmony on the piano.
4. to Olivier Messiaen (for Nicholas Cox) – based on the ravishing slow movement for cello in his Quartet for the End of Time, a seamless melody is woven around ever-changing repeated chords on the piano.
5. to Béla Bartók (for Michael Collins) – the most virtuoso of the set; after a slow introduction, a swirling folk-like dance unfolds, mirroring Bartok’s penchant for simple modal shapes and ostinati rhythms.
In particular, I have had a long association with Michael Collins. I wrote my Clarinet Concerto for him in 1994, which was broadcast and recorded by him.
Edward Gregson - 2010
Media
Scores
Score sample
Reviews
Gregson's gift for mimicry is to the fore in warmly witty tributes to Stravinsky, Finzi and Bartók in which the composer's love for the subjects of his pastiches is evident in every bar.
July 2021
Discography
Edward Gregson: Instrumental Music
- LabelNaxos
- Catalogue Number8574224
- SoloistSoloists of the Halle and BBC Philharmonic
- Released9th April 2021
British Clarinet Sonatas
- LabelChandos
- Catalogue NumberCHAN 10758
- SoloistMichael Collins, clarinet; Michael McHale, piano
- Released15th February 2013