Piano Works And Songs

Description

Baseball, Bach, a disused railway, and the use of music as a means of torture for prisoners may seem like unexpected sources of inspiration for a composer who teaches at Oxford by day. Yet, Martyn Harry's piano music – born in Crawley, West Sussex, in 1964 – proves to be a rich and kaleidoscopic blend of equally unlikely influences: Satie, Sorabji, American minimalism, Prokofiev, Silvestrov, and many others, all aimed at exploring the technique of his friend, the fiery pianist Jonathan Powell, whose untimely passing in December 2025 shook the musical world. A certain jubilation, almost frenetic, emanates from many of these works, echoing Powell's boundless energy in performance. A cycle of melodies based on six early poems by Anna Akhmatova, on the other hand, explores the tension she perceived in intimacy, unleashing a surprising passion.