Pianists Simon Callaghan and Hiroaki Takenouchi have done themselves, the composers, and listeners a great service in presenting works by three twentieth-century British figures who deserve to be better known.
In writing “light music” of the kind featured on the pianists’ latest disc, Dorothy Howell (1898-1982), Pamela Harrison (1915-90), and Madeleine Dring (1923-77) crafted tonal material that was overshadowed by the more daring innovations of the century and ultimately led to its retreat from the concert stage and recording studio. Testifying to that, a large portion of the two-piano pieces on the seventy-four-minute release are first recordings. Thanks to musicians like Callaghan and Takenouchi, the composers’ music is making a slow yet steady comeback as a new appreciation for its value is recognized. Were they still with us, the women would be no doubt thrilled to see their works enjoying a second life.
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… Dring’s Danza Gaya (1964) is an excellent opener for the appeal of its sunny disposition and for showing immediately how seamlessly Callaghan and Takenouchi combine.
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… Danza Gaya rewards as both a terrific example of their artistry as piano partners (see their dazzling rendering of Dring’s Tarantelle as an illustration) and as a testament to the thoroughly appealing music Howell, Harrison, and Dring produced during their lifetimes. The variety and sheer abundance of music featured is alone worth the price of admission, but one also repeatedly marvels at the razor-sharp synchronicity of the piano partners’ playing.