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Summer Waves

A collection of short piano works performed by Len Vorster by composers such as Gershwin, Grieg, Debussy, Ravel and four others.

Len Vorster writes:

This CD evokes the spirit of the summer and the sea where I grew up near the beach in Cape Town, South Africa. The music reflects the shimmering warmth and sensuality of the summer and the ever-changing ebb and flow of the sea.

It also captures the dance rhythms of Spain, France and America, and the nocturnes reflect the sea’s sultry stillness at sunset. I celebrate the eccentricity of Lord Berners, Lennox Berkeley’s exquisite Six Preludes for Piano, and Ravel’s sublime Valses noble et sentimentales (published with Henri Régnier’s quotation “the delicious and forever-new pleasure of a useless occupation”).

Artist

Len Vorster

Len Vorster is one of Australia's finest accompanists and is artistic director of Classical Palette (a series of Naxos recordings devoted to contemporary music), of the Schirmer Ensemble, and of Port Fairy Spring Music Festival.


Press quote

“this musical content is impressive ...the so-called 'jazz' preludes [Gershwin] enjoy an expert airing ... Falla's Serenata Andaluza - Vorster's reading is infectious and eloquent ...Vals Capricho - performance is excellent....handling the right-hand flights in alt with obvious mastery. Berners....Vorster sounds comfortable with the piece's [Polka] flourishes and loud peroration. Berkeley's Six Prelude ... the whole finely realized by Vorster whose delivery is both deliberate and insouciant ... [final prelude] handled with excellent suppleness. Field's Nocturne No.5 ... gets to the heart of the gentle sentiment ... He brings admirable breadth to Grieg's Notturno ... you have to admire the precision of those quiet, exposed trills ... Debussy's La plus que lente ... the rubato direction is employed fully and the interpretation is one of quite legitimate pushes and pulls, fits and starts, action and languor.
Poulenc's waltz-song ... As we've come to expect, Vorster's reading is excellent.”

Read full review

— Clive O’Connell, O’Connell the Music

Audio previews

Track Listing

    Preludes (1926) George Gershwin

  1. I. Allegro 1
  2. II. Andante
  3. III. Allegro 2
  4. Cancion (1900) Manuel de Falla
  5. Serenata (1901) Manuel de Falla
  6. Nocturne (1896) Manuel de Falla
  7. Serenata Andaluza (1900) Manuel de Falla
  8. Valse Capricho (1900) Manuel de Falla
  9. Polka (1941) Lord Berners
  10. Valse (1943) Lord Berners

    11. Six Preludes for Piano, Op. 23 (1945) Lennox Berkeley

  11. I. Allegro
  12. II. Andante
  13. III. Allegro moderato
  14. IV. Allegretto
  15. V. Allegro
  16. VI. Andante
  17. Nocturne No. 5 in B-flat Major (1817) John Field
  18. Lyric Pieces, Op. 54 Nocturne, Op. 54 Edvard Grieg
  19. La plus que lente - Valse (1910) Claude Debussy
  20. Les Chemins de l'amour (1940) Francis Poulenc
  21. Valses nobles et sentimentales (1911) Maurice Ravel

Performers

Composers

George Gershwin

George Gershwin (September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known.

Lord Berners

Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, 14th Baron Berners (1883 – 1950), also known as Gerald Tyrwhitt, was a British composer, novelist, painter, and aesthete. He was also known as Lord Berners.

John Field

John Field (1782 – 1837) was an Irish pianist, composer and teacher widely credited as the creator of the nocturne. While other composers were writing in a similar style at this time, Field was the first to use the term 'Nocturne' specifically to apply to a character piece featuring a cantabile melody over an arpeggiated accompaniment.

Claude Debussy

Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions.

Maurice Ravel

Many consider Ravel as a major composer for the piano as well as a genius of orchestration. But it is always a surprise to discover how few works make up his total output for the instrument. All his compositions for piano can be performed in under two and one half hours.

Manuel de Falla

Manuel de Falla was born in 1876 in Cadiz, where he first studied, moving later to Madrid and then to Paris, but returning to Madrid when war broke out in 1914. Influenced by the traditional Andalusian cante jondo, he settled in Granada, where his friends included the poet Federico Garcia Lorca.


Where to buy

Summer Waves is available as as CD. It can be purchased online through Buywell Music or the Australian Music Centre which both offer secure online ordering.

Move CDs can be ordered through music retailers across Australia including Readings.

Product details

List price
$25.00 AUD
Release date
May 2024
Copyright
© 2004 Len Vorster
Phonogram
℗ 2024 Move Records
Catalogue number
MCD 661
Alternate catalogue number
MCD661
Barcode
EAN 9314574066128