Stevenson: Piano Music, Vol. 7 – Folksong with Grainger

Percy Grainger (1882-1961) and Ronald Stevenson (1928-2015), both composer-pianists of the Golden Age of keyboard virtuosity, shared a passion for folksong, especially the modal Celtic melodies from the fringes of the British Isles. Though the two never met, they corresponded for many years, with Stevenson arranging many of Grainger's transcriptions in a deliberate act of homage to the older man, whose quirky originality brought Stevenson illumination on his own idiosyncratic path. This seventh instalment in Christopher Guild's Toccata Classics survey of Stevenson's piano music uncorks the exultant good humour that he and Grainger found on that common Celtic ground.