Homecoming is a set of recollections of people, places, times and experiences. It is a response to the anxieties and concerns that were created by the global pandemic, but it also reflects some of the creative and artistic possibilities that can arise during times of instability and solitude.
Beethoven’s three sonatas of Op. 10 were published in September 1798 and were written with Beethoven the pianist as much to the forefront as Beethoven the composer. During this time, the young virtuoso was certainly as renowned as a pianist and improviser as he was a composer, and these three early sonatas contain the whole kaleidoscopic range of his youthful musical, emotional and pianistic language.
Joseph Tong has headed to the Sibelius Museum in Turku, Finland for Volume 3 of Sibelius’s piano works, programmed and played with thought and care on a modern Steinway. Sibelius wrote his first pieces for piano aged 20, and Tong’s recital opens with a piece from just three years later. Schumann is in the wings of the rarely heard Florestan Suite, its four movements inspired by the fairy-tale character Florestan and his encounter with water nymphs. It’s followed by a Largo in A major, eloquently played.
For anyone who loves Camel, Genesis and early Marillion, this is a must. Pendragon were one of a clutch of bands including IQ, Pallas, Solstice and the aforementioned Marillion, who made up a new wave of British Progressive Rock in the 1980s. By 1985, Pendragon had released an EP, played the Reading Festival and toured with Marillion as well as doing a session for Tommy Vance's legendary Friday Rock Show. Despite that, they were still largely ignored by the mainstream. 'The Jewel', the band's debut album shows a band that has clearly spent a lot of time playing live, as they are extremely proficient and tight musically throughout the record.