Anthony Burgess The Man and His Music

Wilfred Josephs, Alan Rawsthorne, Matyas Seiber, Gordon Crosse, Peter Pope etc

John Turner with Harvey Davies, piano

metier msv 77202 (2 CDs)

I wish people would think of me as a musician who writes novels, instead of a novelist who writes music on the side. – Anthony Burgess

Anthony Burgess - world famous as a Shakespeare expert, and more popularly for his book and film 'A Clockwork Orange' - was also a prolific composer with a vast output of over 250 works to his credit !

This CD will be of particular interest to readers of my generation, who got to know recorder music of British composers of the time featured by Carl Dolmetsch at annual Wigmore hall recitals, and published throught the good offices of Walter Bergmann of Schott, whose recorder classes I attended.

This significant release, depending upon the championship of John Turner and the energy of David Wordsworth, features twenty composers many of whose names might soon be lost.

Several of Burgess's own recorder works are included alongside neo-romantic pieces by Wilfred Josephs, Alan Rawsthorne, Matyas Seiber, Gordon Crosse, Peter Pope (whom I had known personally and through their music) and others whose names and music are new to me. Most of the items here will become appreciated through this collection as a treasure trove of pieces that deserve places in recorder soloists' repertoires.

Peter Grahame Woolf

See anthony burgess the composer