SOMM Recordings explores one of the most significant partnerships in 20th-century British music with FaÃ§ades, an album of piano-accompanied songs and music for four-hand piano by William Walton and Constant Lambert. FaÃ§ades takes it's title from Walton's era-defining "entertainment", heard here in arrangements for four-hand piano of it's two orchestral Suites by Lambert - regarded by Walton as the definitive reciter of Edith Sitwell's nonsense verses. Lambert's Trois piÃ¨ces nÃ¨gres pour les touches blanches for piano duet are a kaleidoscopic, jazz-accented tour de force exploration of the piano's white keys. Described by the composer as an "idyll", Walton's Siesta (also for two-player piano) is, says Ronald Woodley in his entertaining and informative booklet notes, "infused with the clear light and open charm of Italy". The eight song settings by Lambert of poems by the eighth-century Chinese poet LI Po are "exquisitely crafted, restrained and often enigmatic miniatures [marked by an] elusive and allusive musical style". Completing the recital, a selection of songs by Walton range from Tudor pastiche (Under the Greenwood Tree) to the atonal-inflected Tritons and lyrically captivating Beatriz's Song. Making their SOMM debuts are tenor James Geer and his accompanist in the songs, pianist Ronald Woodley. The latter is joined at the keyboard in the four-hand piano arrangements by Andrew West whose previous SOMM recordings include three acclaimed volumes of Parry's English Lyrics.

Tracklist:

3 Pièces Nègres Pour Les Touches Blanches: No. 1, Aubade
3 Pièces Nègres Pour Les Touches Blanches: No. 2, Siesta
3 Pièces Nègres Pour Les Touches Blanches: No. 3, Nocturne
4 Songs: No. 4, The Winds
3 Songs To Poems By Edith Sitwell: No. 1, Daphne
Tritons
8 Poems Of Li-Po: No. 1, A Summer Day
8 Poems Of Li-Po: No. 2, Nocturne
8 Poems Of Li-Po: No. 3, With A Man Of Leisure
8 Poems Of Li-Po: No. 4, Lines
Siesta (Version For Piano 4 Hands)
Under The Greenwood Tree (From "As You Like It")
Beatriz's Song (From "Christopher Columbus") [Arr. C. Palmer For Voice & Piano]
8 Poems Of Li-Po: No. 5, The Ruin Of The Ku-Su Palace
8 Poems Of Li-Po: No. 6, The Intruder
8 Poems Of Li-Po: No. 7, On The City Street
8 Poems Of Li-Po: No. 8, The Long-Departed Lover
Façade Suite No. 1 (Arr. C. Lambert For Piano 4 Hands): I. Polka
Façade Suite No. 1 (Arr. C. Lambert For Piano 4 Hands): II. Valse
Façade Suite No. 1 (Arr. C. Lambert For Piano 4 Hands): III. Swiss Jodelling Song
Façade Suite No. 1 (Arr. C. Lambert For Piano 4 Hands): IV. Tango - Pasodoblé
Façade Suite No. 1 (Arr. C. Lambert For Piano 4 Hands): V. Tarantella Sevillana
Façade Suite No. 2 (Arr. C. Lambert For Piano 4 Hands): I. Fanfare
Façade Suite No. 2 (Arr. C. Lambert For Piano 4 Hands): II. Scotch Rhapsody
Façade Suite No. 2 (Arr. C. Lambert For Piano 4 Hands): III. Country Dance
Façade Suite No. 2 (Arr. C. Lambert For Piano 4 Hands): IV. Noche Espagnola (Long Steel Glass)
Façade Suite No. 2 (Arr. C. Lambert For Piano 4 Hands): V. Popular Song
Façade Suite No. 2 (Arr. C. Lambert For Piano 4 Hands): VI. Fox-Trot (Old Sir Faulk)

UPC: 748871061422
Label: Somm Recordings
Release Date: 5.15.20
Format: CD

Lambert / Geer / Woodley - Faeades (CD)