The Malcolm Smith Memorial Album

HUMPHREY SEARLE (1915-1982): Piano Sonata, Op. 21, ROBERT MATTHEW-WALKER (b.1939): Fantasy-Sonata: Hamlet (Piano Sonata No. 3), LESLIE HOWARD (b.1948): Ruddigore: Fantaisie de concert, Op. 40, ROBIN HOLLOWAY (b.1943): Grand Heroical March for six hands at one piano, to mark the departure from Messrs Boosey and Hawkes of Malcolm Smith, May 23, 1997, G.F. HANDEL (1685-1759): Come, but keep thy wonted state from L'allegro ed il penseroso (transcr. Leslie Howard).

Description: No need to know who Malcolm Smith was although his CV is long and remarkable (it's in the notes), it's enough to know that bequeathed the money to make this recording of mostly unrecorded repertoire (anyone out there have the mono Argo recording of the Searle in their collection?). The Howard Fantaisie and Handel transcription are the ice cream while the Searle (1951) and the Matthew-Walker (1980) the asparagus and brussels sprouts of this meal. Both are approachable for the mildly adventurous, Searle's being a tribute to Liszt's Sonata on the master's 140th birthday - dodecaphonic but structurally and gesturally alluding to the Liszt sonata in so many subtle ways that you can't help but admire it. John Lill, Leslie Howard, Mark Bebbington, Julian Jacobson (pianists).