Sonata for Piano no 1

Instrumentation

Piano solo

Other Information

3 movements - ´slow - much faster´; andante; allegro molto.
First performed by Malcolm Wilson at Birmingham Conservatoire in 1978. Subsequently broadcast by Richard Wise, as part of his winner´s recital in the BRMB Young Musician´s competition in 1983. The work has since formed part of numerous prize-winning recitals by young musicians, in particular by pupils of Beryl Chempin.

Duncan Honeybourne, in his concerts championing the piano music of 20th century British composers, has performed the work at numerous venues, including the Courtyard Theatre, Hereford, as part of the Three Choirs Festival (August 2000); the British Music Information Centre (October 2000); St Martin-in-the-Fields, London (November 2000); Birmingham Cathedral (February 2001); the Birmingham and Midland Institute (October 2001); Wednesbury Art Gallery (November 2001); Weymouth Arts Centre (August 2002); Wey Valley School, Weymouth (October 2002); Clevedon Music Club (September 2002); the Minster Church, Axminster (October 2002); Christchurch, Nailsworth (April 2003); the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham (July 2003); and a performance at Birmingham Conservatoire recorded for a CD of the Composers´ Alliance in November 2000. The Sonata was performed by David Trippett on the Festival Musiques en Mer Mediterranean Cruise in August 2002; by Jonathan French at the English Music Festival in Stratford upon Avon in 2002 and 2005; and by pupils of Duncan Honeybourne - Joshua Weller at Bryanston School in May 2005 and Alex Hoang at St Peter’s Church, Poole, in July 2009.

A set of 2 CD recordings of Vienna Horns and Piano, made February-May 2001 by the ´Wiener Waldhornverein´ (Vienna Horn Association), include this Sonata, played by American pianist, Anne Madison. (The CDs - entitled Messen und Sonaten and Schlosskonzert - also include Andrew Downes´ Sonata for Horn and Piano, Sonata for 4 Horns and Suite for 6 Horns). Anne Madison gave the first American performance of the Sonata no.1 for Piano in Nebraska on 29th November 2001, and the first Austrian performance at a concert of the Austrian Music Association in Vienna on 7th December 2001, besides performing the work in Birmingham Cathedral in April 2002, at Birmingham Conservatoire in October 2003, and at the Haus der Komponisten, Vienna, in June 2004.