The piano music of English composer John Ireland is as richly imagined and fully realized a body of piano music as any written after
Debussy. From the impressionism of the early works like Decorations through the neo-classical formalism of mature works like the Piano Sonata to the flirtation with atonality in late works like Sarnia -- An Island Sequence, Ireland's piano music stands as high in his output as his much better known orchestral works. In these three recordings from 1975, 1977, and 1978 by
Eric Parkin, Ireland's piano music is given performances that consistently do the works full justice.
Parkin can handle every extravagant technical demand made by the music, demands rivaling those made by
Debussy or Scriabin. More importantly,
Parkin is wholly sympathetic to Ireland's music, no matter what the style. He can clarify the sometimes gnarly writing with his supremely clean articulation and smooth the sometimes hard-edged sonorities with his deft use of the mute and sustain pedals. Though not for first-time Ireland listening -- his orchestral Mai-Dun or The Forgotten Rite are more characteristic and more immediately appealing -- anyone who already knows and loves Ireland's music need not delay. Lyrita's stereo sound is crisp, deep, and round.