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American Record Guide

English pianist and composer William Baines (1899-1922) wrote more than 150 works for solo piano and a number of larger orchestral works. He was called to WWI military service in 1938 when he had just turned 18. Though he was not killed in service, the septic poisoning he suffered led to his early death from tuberculosis at age 23. This album was produced to honor him on the centenary of his death.

The program, Pictures of Light, also the title of a set of three pieces heard midway  through, consists mostly of Baines’s piano pieces composed in an impressionist style. It begins with the longest work of the album, Paradise Gardens, a sensual paean to nature, followed by The Naiad with its twinkling homage to Ravel. Several pieces evoke Chopin and Scriabin. Two sets of pieces, Pictures of Light and Eight Preludes, were assembled posthumously from his works by Baines’s advocates. All are performed splendidly by Honeybourne, who makes a convincing case for these pieces—and who also wrote the fine program notes.

The program concludes with Five Songs, settings of texts by poets as different as Christina Rossetti, Sapho, and Rabindranath Tagore. They are recorded here for the first time. Gordon Pullin has long been associated with the music of Baines. Though he is past his prime as a singer, Pullin sings the five songs with fine expression and clear articulation of the words. His recording of these songs for the first time here is a tribute to his longstanding advocacy and performance of the composer’s music. Pullin also wrote the liner notes for the songs.

The album concludes with At the Grave of William Baines, composed in 1999 by fellow Yorkshireman Robin Walker to mark the centenary of the composer’s birth; it serves as a fitting tribute by a living composer to one who inspired him. Walker uses some of the twinkling writing we heard in The Naiad  by Baines and ends with what suggests the tolling of a church bell to mourn his death.

This album is a bittersweet reminder of a composer whose early compositions showed such promise and who was lost to the world by the horror of war. Texts are included.