Leon McCawley records (almost) complete Samuel Barber piano music for Somm Recordings
British pianist Leon McCawley
has recorded an album of piano music by Samuel Barber for
Somm Recordings.
Released in the wake of concert performances of the featured works during 2010 – the centenary year of the composer’s birth – the disc is McCawley’s second survey of Barber’s music for solo piano, following his recording for Virgin Classics in 1997.
Containing all but “one or two very early pieces,” the new disc
expands on McCawley’s earlier recording by adding three juvenile sketches (composed when Barber was just 14) alongside performances of the two Interludes, Souvenirs, Excursions, the Op. 26 Sonata, and Op. 46 Ballade.
McCawley first came to prominence in 1993 when he won First Prize
in the International Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna and Second Prize in the Leeds International Piano Competition at the age of 19. His first recording for Somm, an all-Chopin recital, was released in 2010.
Barber’s Piano Music is scheduled for release in August.
