Lyrita is releasing a collection of Malcolm Lipkin’s piano music, recorded by renowned soloist Nathan Williamson. Included in this recording are Lipkin’s Nocturnes and Sonatas.
“Malcolm Lipkin's experience and skill as an executant who can perform his own music is evident in each of his piano scores. Often hypnotic and brooding, it beckons the listener in to an ethereal, uncanny soundscape. At other times, the material is brilliant and challenging, demanding from the player a formidable technique. Perhaps the most notable aspect of Lipkin’s writing for piano is its basic integrity. If, at a certain point as the music unfolds, the composer decides that an unvarying series of repeated notes or chords or arpeggiated figures is required for several bars then that is, unashamedly and irrefutably, what he sets down on the stave. This preoccupation with the fundamentals of piano writing is part of the very fabric of the material – shrewd, incisive and intuitive.” Paul Conway, 2023
Nathan Williamson performs at many leading venues as soloist and chamber musician, composes new work for a wide variety of artists at home and abroad, and directs performance and education and outreach projects on a local and national level. Recent performance highlights include the complete Beethoven Concertos with the Prometheus Orchestra, the premiere of Christopher Brown’s 24 Preludes and Fugues, international tours with the renowned new music ensemble Piano Circus, and a detailed exploration of piano works by Malcolm Lipkin culminating in the present album. During the pandemic Nathan gave online recitals for City Music Live and regularly streamed live music into schools and care homes.
On Malcolm Lipkin - The Symphonies: 'These performances are of great importance as examples of British Symphonies in the second half of the twentieth century': MusicWeb International