Ronald Stevenson: Piano Works Peter Jablonski

• Ronald Stevenson (1928 - 2015): Peter Grimes Fantasy on themes from Benjamin Britten’s opera for piano solo (1971):
• 1 Stevenson: Peter Grimes Fantasy on themes from Benjamin Britten’s opera for piano solo (1971) 07:25
• Suite for piano from Paderewski’s opera Manru (1961):
• 2 Stevenson: Suite for piano from Paderewski’s opera Manru (1961): Introduction and Gypsy March 03:53
• 3 Stevenson: Suite for piano from Paderewski’s opera Manru (1961): Gypsy Song 03:02
• 4 Stevenson: Suite for piano from Paderewski’s opera Manru (1961): Lullaby 02:28
• 5 Stevenson: Suite for piano from Paderewski’s opera Manru (1961): Cracovienne 04:08
• Romance from Concerto in D minor, Mozart K466, realised by Ronald Stevenson (2002):
• 6 Stevenson: Romance from Concerto in D minor, Mozart K466, realised by Ronald Stevenson (2002) 08:57
• Quintet from The Mastersingers, ‘elaborated for left hand alone’, Wagner-Wittgenstein (1980)
• 7 Stevenson: Quintet from The Mastersingers, ‘elaborated for left hand alone’, Wagner-Wittgenstein (1980) 05:54
• Ostinato Macabro on the name Godowski (1980):
• 8 Stevenson: Ostinato Macabro on the name Godowski (1980) 01:00
• Etudette d’après Korsakov et Chopin (Spectre d’Alkan) (1987):
• 9 Stevenson: Etudette d’après Korsakov et Chopin (Spectre d’Alkan) (1987) 01:53
• 6 Pensées sur des Préludes de Chopin (1959):
• 10 Stevenson: 6 Pensées sur des Préludes de Chopin (1959): I. Agitato/Largo 01:38
• 11 Stevenson: 6 Pensées sur des Préludes de Chopin (1959): II. Lento funebre 01:44
• 12 Stevenson: 6 Pensées sur des Préludes de Chopin (1959): III. Andantino (alla mazurka) 01:03
• 13 Stevenson: 6 Pensées sur des Préludes de Chopin (1959): IV. Lento sostenuto 01:10
• 14 Stevenson: 6 Pensées sur des Préludes de Chopin (1959): V. Allegro agitato, con urgenza 01:23
• 15 Stevenson: 6 Pensées sur des Préludes de Chopin (1959): VI. Non agitato/Largo 02:19
• Little jazz variations on Purcell’s New Scotch Tune (1964/75):
• 16 Stevenson: Little jazz variations on Purcell’s New Scotch Tune (1964/75) 05:10
• Piccolo Niccolò Paganinesco (1986):
• 17 Stevenson: Piccolo Niccolò Paganinesco (1986) 04:53
• Preludette on the name George Gershwin (1981):
• 18 Stevenson: Preludette on the name George Gershwin (1981) 00:53
• Tauberiana, transcription of Richard Tauber’s song My Heart and I (1980):
• 19 Stevenson: Tauberiana, transcription of Richard Tauber’s song My Heart and I (1980) 04:02
• Total Runtime 01:02:55

Info for Ronald Stevenson: Piano Works

Pianist Peter Jablonski’s new album on Ondine is focused on the piano works of Ronald Stevenson (1928–2015), a Scottish pianist, composer, thinker, writer, educator, and a committed pacifist. Best known for his monumental 80-minute-long Passacaglia on DSCH, a tribute to Shostakovich composed in 1962, this piano album features a selection of piano gems written between 1959 and 2002. Alongside Stevenson’s masterful Peter Grimes Fantasy, the album includes four world première recordings touching but a corner of a rich and enormous tapestry of nearly 500 piano pieces written by the composer.

Stevenson’s musical interests were wide-ranging: since his college days, he studied counterpoint, and was interested in the music of Purcell and early masters. He also admired the grand virtuoso tradition of Chopin and Liszt, Medtner and Rachmaninoff, Paderewski, Godowski, Sorabji, and others. Not only did Stevenson study them all and played their works on the piano, but each of these figures found an honoured place in his musical temple. Many of Stevenson’s musical compositions are examples of intertwining complexities of his musical thought, melody, counterpoint, and harmony; he weaves his musical fabrics that preserve the wide gamut of his creative thinking.

Peter Jablonski, piano

Peter Jablonski
is an award-winning internationally acclaimed Swedish pianist. Discovered by Abbado and Ashkenazy and signed by Decca in his seventeenth year, he went on to perform, collaborate, and record with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, which include the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Kirov (now Mariinsky), La Scala Philharmonic, Tonhalle Zurich, Orchestre Nationale de France, NHK Tokyo, DSO Berlin, Warsaw Philharmonic, Philadelphia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Cleveland Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Valery Gergiev, Kurt Sanderling, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Riccardo Chailly, Daniele Gatti, and Myung-Whun Chung, to name a few.

He has performed and recorded the complete piano concertos by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Bartók, and all piano sonatas by Prokofiev. Hailed an ‘unconventional virtuoso’ (Present Arts), during his three-decade-long career he developed a diverse repertoire that includes works by Barber, Gershwin, Szymanowski, Lutosławski, Copland, Stenhammar, with most recent additions of such Scandinavian and European composers as Valborg Aulin, Elfrida Andrée, Laura Netzel, Johanna Müller-Hermann, and Alexey Stanchinsky.

He worked with composers Witold Lutosławski and Arvo Pärt, and had a number of works composed for, and dedicated to him, including Wojciech Kilar’s Piano Concerto, for which he won the Orpheus award for the world premiere performance at the Warsaw Autumn Festival. He remains a supporter of today’s composers and regularly gives world premieres of new works, together with those that have been neglected by music history.

Jablonski’s extensive discography includes recordings he has made for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, Altara, Octavia, and Ondine labels. He received numerous awards for his recordings, which include the Edison award for best concerto recording of Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto, Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and Lutoslawski’s Paganini Rhapsody with Ashkenazy and RPO for Decca. He was presented with the Grammophone Classical Music Award for his Deutsche Grammophone recording of works by Cécile Chaminade with Anne Sofie von Otter and Bengt Forsberg.

Peter Jablonski is the recipient of the Litteris et Artibus medal for his services to culture, granted to him by the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf. He is also the winner of a prestigious prize Svenskar i Världen (International Swedish Personality of the Year), receiving it before ABBA and Astrid Lindgren.

Booklet for Ronald Stevenson: Piano Works