Edward Cowie: Rutherford’s Lights

Métier is licensing a few particularly excellent recordings from the University of Hertfordshire which produced the UHR label some years ago and one of these is Rutherford’s Lights, a piano cycle by Edward Cowie and played brilliantly by Richard Casey.

This epic cycle of 24 studies for solo piano explores the wonders of light in many states and forms from Simple Wave Motion to Dispersion and Radiation of Electromagnetic Waves. Himself an ex-student of physics, Cowie collaborated with Light Physicist Sir Michael Berry FRS in ‘an adventure in illuminations, colours and photons!’ The work was commissioned by The Institute of Physics in London, England and premiered and then recorded in 2010.

This is music inspired by science inspired by music! Pianist Richard Casey gives a stunning and richly virtuosic performance of this work, which after its premiere in The National Portrait Gallery in London, earned huge praise and plaudits for its originality and creative power. Cowie- renowned for music that challenges all the senses, has literally made a sonic reality of illumination in all its grandeur and kaleidoscopic possibilities. This is a re-release of the original 2010 recording, released at that time on the UHR label. This will be the first issue of the recording in digital form, the UHR original having been a limited CD release only.

Edward Cowie has been described as the greatest living composer inspired by nature, and the recordings of his music issued by Métier over the last couple of years have drawn unstinted praise. In this, his 80th birthday year, a number of new recordings are in progress including the third volume in the Bird Portraits series, and music for string quartets and other chamber groupings.

Watch Edward Cowie on Rutherford’s Lights