Mark opens the 2012 season of concerts with the RPO at Lowestoft… and opens the English Music Festival with the BBC Concert Orchestra on June 1st, 2012
Mark is the soloist in Tchaikovky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Nicholas Cleobury on Saturday, February 11th, 2012 in Lowestoft.
He also gives the premiere concert performance of Vaughan Williams Fantasia for piano and orchestra (1904) with the BBC Concert Orchestra, as part of the opening concert of the 2012 English Music Festival on June 1st, 2012. Mark will also perform John Ireland’s Legend for piano and orchestra at the same concert.
Mark’s premiere recording of Vaughan Williams Fantasia for piano and orchestra & Mathias Piano Concertos 1 and 2
“Ralph Vaughan Williams withdrew most of the large-scale works he wrote before the first world war, but thanks to his late widow Ursula, who lifted his ban, they are gradually being revealed today, including his Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra, rescued by Mark Bebbington and recorded here for the first time. Dating from his student days in 1896, it offers fascinating glimpses of his influences and clearly points the way towards the greatness that was to come. It joins another student work, William Mathias’s wonderfully angular first piano concerto, in a striking performance which, coupled with the second from 1961, brings an unjustly neglected composer back into the limelight.”
The Observer, Sunday 2 October 2011
Stephen Pritchard, The Observer, Sunday 2 October 2011
Mark’s Liszt bicentenary recital – St. John’s, Smith Square – Saturday, October 22nd at 7.30 pm
Click on image below to view flyer (pdf).
Mark Bebbington (piano) Frank Bridge Piano Music Vol 3
“Frank Bridge is still best known as the teacher of Benjamin Britten, but thanks to dedicated performers such as Mark Bebbington, his own music is emerging from the shadows. These piano pieces show an astonishing range of influences, from Chopin to expressionist Schoenberg to Debussy to English pastoralism, sometimes within the space of one piece. To make it all cohere requires a firm structural grasp, which Bebbington certainly has, but he catches the sensuousness of the music too.”
4****
Saturday Telegraph, 24th September 2011
Ivan Hewett
Review on Classical Source for Mark’s new CD of William Mathias Piano Concertos Nos 1 and 2 and Vaughan Williams Fantasia – premiere recording
“William Mathias’s first two piano concertos are followed by Ralph Vaughan Williams’s Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra. Somm gives us the first recording of each and they benefit from the combined talents of Mark Bebbington, George Vass and the Ulster Orchestra… The performances from all concerned are splendid – Messrs Bebbington and Vass are seasoned practitioners of music’s worthwhile byways – and the recording is beautifully clear and truthfully balanced. A feather in Somm’s cap for this release.”
Full review on Classical Source for Mark’s new CD of William Mathias Piano Concertos Nos 1 and 2 and Vaughan Williams Fantasia – premiere recording
Mark talks to Classical Music Magazine, July 30th – the Best of British.
Classical Music feature – July 2011 »(PDF)
5***** Review August BBC Music Magazine
“This concluding instalment in Mark Bebbington’s exemplary survey of Frank Bridge’s solo piano music lacks a single big unifying work, like the Sonata or the Dramatic Fantasia in the previous two volumes. But it spans the whole length of his keyboard-writing career from early light-music miniatures, such as the charming pensee fugitive and Scherzettino written while he was still a student of Stanford at the Royal College of Music, to the radical late works from the 1920s. In these especially – as also in the Three Improvisations for the left hand, written in 1918 for Douglas Fox, who had lost his right hand on the battlefields of Flanders – we can appreciate Bridge’s restless, questing imagination and his assimilation of continental influences. His last piece, Gargoyle, may remind us of Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit, just as the simmering toccata Hidden Fires recalls Scriabin’s Vers la flamme , and it’s clear throughout that Bridge was absorbing Debussy, yet the results are wholly personal.
Bebbington brings out the opalescent harmonies and wayward phrases of these pieces to perfection, and deftly characterises the various songsters in The Hedgerow. Perhaps the expressive high-points of the disc are the desolate Winter Pastoral of 1925 and the enigmatic A Dedication of the following year; Bridge at his most mystical and inward, very difficult to bring off, but performed here with rapt attentiveness and beauty of tone that reveals the expressive impact of these works. the recording is beautifully balanced, matching the sensitivity and sympathy of Bebbington’s playing. What a series this has been. Despite the real excellence of competing cycles from Peter Jacobs (Continuum) and Ashley Wass (Naxos), this is ultimately the one to have.”
Calum MacDonald, BBC Music Magazine August 2011
Performance 5*****
Recording 5*****
Andrew Clements *** Guardian, June 2011
“There are no substantial pieces in the third volume of Mark Bebbington’s survey of Frank Bridge’s piano music – the longest piece included ( the first of the Three Improvisations for Left Hand) lasts just six minutes, and the average length is much nearer three. Yet even within such a collection of miniatures and occasional pieces, which ranges right across Bridge’s composing career, there is still enough to show what a remarkable and , in the context of early -20th-century British music, unique figure he was. The shifting impressionist harmonies of Sunset, the first of Three Poems could have come from a solo by Bill Evans, for instance, while the expressionist Gargoyle, composed in 1928 but rejected at the time by Bridge’s publisher and only published half a century later, is as harmonically freewheeling as anything he ever wrote. Bebbington plays these and other radical pieces, such as the mysterious Dedication, with the same poise and clarity he brings to the more obviously Edwardian salon music here.”
Read Mark’s article Too Many Records in June, 2011 International Record Review
Mark’s latest CD: Frank Bridge solo piano music Volume 3
Review: Mark Bebbington, at St John’s Church, Hagley
Read Mark’s latest 5***** recital review »
Mark talks to Gramophone Magazine Online about Vaughan Williams Premiere
Vaughan Williams Premiere Recording
Mark records the Vaughan Williams Fantasia for piano and orchestra in May 2011, with the coupling of Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 by William Mathias.
Originally composed in 1898, Vaughan Williams later revised the twenty-three minute Fantasia in 1904 and 1906.
The orchestra is the Ulster Orchestra conducted by George Vass. Label SOMM
Forthcoming London St. John’s, Smith Square recital
Thursday, December 2nd at 7.30 pm
Click on image below to view flyer (pdf)
View review »
Forthcoming London Wigmore Hall recital
Read the Independent’s 4**** review from October 1st Independent’s 4**** Review
Click on image below to view flyer (pdf).
Book online »
“Bebbington’s powers of subtle characterisation and sensitive range of touch are shown in his extremely sensitive portrayals…….. The cunningly-shaped programme opens with an exceptionally powerful performance of the 1915 Rhapsody, one of Ireland’s most important piano works. Despite strong competing accounts…. Bebbington is providing us with the well-nigh definitive take on this quintisentially English repertoire.”
BBC Music Instrumental Choice, September BBC Music Magazine 5*****
“Bebbington’s fluent and poetic style is well suited to Ireland’s romantic early pieces. The 1906 First Rhapsody receives its world premiere recording – why Ireland withheld it for so long isn’t evident from the quality of the music. The famous Holy Boy is here in its original version, performed with touching simplicity. The Ballad of London Nights is picaresquely atmospheric, showing Bebbington at his most alluring.”
The Sunday Telegraph, August 2010 Michael Kennedy 4****
“The lonely life of John Ireland (1879-1962) has always seemed more interesting than his music: orphaned young; overshadowed by his pupils, notably Britten, who apparently found his classes dull; a brief, chaste marriage to a teenager 30 years his junior; and worse still, a prolonged under-appreciation of his compositions. But the new enthusiasm for English music of this period has led to a revival of interest, as this excellent series by the young British pianist Mark Bebbington demonstrates. Collectors may welcome the world premiere recording of First Rhapsody (1906), but newcomers will find these miniatures, full of French impressionistic colour and English wistfulness, a fine starting point.”
Observer, July 2010, Fiona Maddocks
“Aside from their phenomenal difficulty and expansive scale, there is no reason why these two boldly romantic sonatas by Benjamin Dale (1885-1943) and William Hurlstone (1876-1906) should have faded from view. Mark Bebbington, indefatigable in exploring the nether reaches of the English piano repertoire, tackles their mind-boggling bravura with panache while communicating their lyrical beauty , fantasy and passion.”
Daily Telegraph, Geoffrey Norris, July 2010 4****
“The premiere recording of the Sonata in F minor by the tragically short-lived Hurlstone is a pleasing late-romantic romp. But Benjamin Dale’s work is more unusual, a meandering, discursive essay in variation form that constantly holds one’s attention. Bebbington tackles the formidable challenges of both works with skill and sensitivity.”
Classical Music Magazine, July 2010 4****
“Mark Bebbington has done British music proud, and his forays into the less-trodden areas of British piano music have been greeted with universal praise. His survey of John Ireland’s piano music has reached Volume 3. For my taste and even with strong competition on Naxos and Nimbus, Bebbington’s is the finest of these discs, not least because he is the best recorded of the three. Listen to his rhythmic drive in the excellent First Rhapsody and his charm and agility in the Ballade of London Nights…….”
Pianist Magazine, August/September 2010 Recommended
“The leading British pianist is making waves with his recordings and recitals of the neglected British repertoire. He talks to editor Erica Worth about his passion for this music and about his varied and diverse musical enthusiasms.”
Pianist,
August-September 2010
Cover Story: Mark Bebbington
The always-enterprising SOMM label has placed much faith in the highly gifted young pianist Mark Bebbington, whose discography on that label seems to grow by the month. One of the most interesting of his recent releases on Somm has been four British works for piano and orchestra, which in repertoire terms go together extremely well… Mark Bebbington seemingly sails through its problems with consummate ease, brilliantly partnered by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Howard Williams.
… All in all, this is a highly desirable and strongly recommended disc.
5***** Musical Opinion, June 2010
“Two Premiere recordings and two unfamiliar works, eloquently performed by Mark Bebbington and the CBSO, combine to make this an essential disc for anyone with a taste for mid- twentieth century UK repertoire, now creeping back into fashion. An unexpected and fascinating disc.”
Observer, August 2009
”Mark Bebbington continues to enhance his already glowing reputation with an intriguing disc of four concertante works. Bebbington is adept at getting to the lyrical heart of each work….”
BBC Music Magazine 5*****, October 2009
”Mark Bebbington and conductor David Curtis are wholehearted in their advocacy of this fascinating piece (Bax Piano Concertino). Bebbington is also impressive in Ireland’s attractive concerto with its brilliany jazzy episodes and its lyrical intensity.”
Sunday Telegraph, 11th October 2009, 4**** Michael Kennedy
”Bebbington brings inventive impulsiveness combined with an interpretation that ranges from utmost delicacy to passionate intensity – in sum, it is masterful.”
International Piano Magazine, September/October 2009
”All told, a most successful disc of music (John Ireland) that deserves to be better known.”
Gramophone, November 2009, Edward Greenfield
”Bebbington has almost single-handedly demonstrated that 20th- century British piano scores have an exciting role to play in the concert hall and recording studio.”