International Piano

Originally recorded for the University of Hertfordshire’s UHR label in 2007, this memorable recording is now reissued on Métier. Born in 1943, Cowie studied with Alexander Goehr, but under the influence of Michael Tippett rebelled against serialism, fusing tonality and atonality. He regards himself as a pictorial ‘composer of evocations’, a description fully justified by these wonderful Preludes.

Composed in 2005-7, they are dedicated to Philip Mead, who performs them here. Cowie regards Bach’s 48 and Debussy’s Préludes as greater than their individual elements, a view that informs his own Preludes. They follow Bach’s key-scheme but are grouped into four books: Water, Air, Earth, Fire. Mead succinctly describes the ‘neo-baroque style … wholly of the 21^st century’, with ‘lithe, contrapuntal textures … in strict two-part writing’.

The pieces evoke their wild locations. Book 1, Water, opens with the gorgeously cascading ‘O Brook (Devon)’, with its pastoral-sounding harmonies. In a pattern of contrast, the next prelude – ‘KIama Blowhole (NSW, Australia)’ – is stuttering and darkly atonal. Book 2, Air, begins with the furious ‘Boscastle (gale)’ juxtaposed against the static ’35,000 feet (Straits of Java)’, its repeated note continuing for three minutes.

The book concludes with ‘Dartington Gardens (leaf-fall)’, which has a gorgeous harmonic texture. In Book 3, Earth, ‘Crackington Haven ‘ is fiery, eloquent and brief; ‘Brecon Beacons’ is rhapsodilc and plangent. An outstanding recording.

—Andy Hamilton