Irish Composer - Howard Ferguson

Has anyone ever heard of Howard Ferguson? I heard a wonderful piano concerto on CBC last week and he was identified as the composer. CBC said that what I heard was a live recording but didn't identify the name of the piece. Anyone know anything of him or his music? Thanks, Rosalie

MOLLOYRO asks:

Ferguson, who was born in Belfast in 1908 and died just last year, made a modest splash as a composer in his 30s, with several substantial pieces recorded on 78 rpm records for the British market. Dame Myra Hess took up his Piano Sonata in F minor and recorded it for HMV. Present-day pianists might still find it rewarding.

I own three Hyperion CDs with music by Ferguson, two devoted entirely to him, and a third recital disc with a nice set of pieces for clarinet and piano. His Op. 4 Octet, same instrumentation as Schubert's and a third of the length, holds up well in a conservative tonal idiom.

Ferguson in the 50s and 60s edited a large amount of piano music for [I think] Oxford University Press. Until Hyperion sparked a mid-80s recorded revival, his best-known piece was a sonata for violin and piano often played in recital and eventually recorded for RCA by Jascha Heifetz.

John Wiser

We thoroughly enjoyed playing some flute and piano pieces he wrote And his anthologies of Baroque Music are terrific David McKay

His 'Five Bagatelles' for piano are a rewarding little piece, also I believe recorded by Myra Hess. Thematically each one is based on 3 or 4 notes provided by someone or other, apparently picked more or less at random, and his creativity in developing such unpromising material both melodically and harmonically is impressive. I learnt this piece in my youth and still return to it with great pleasure.

...Robert

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