Mark Bebbington

Musical Opinion

infusion — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:10:38 +0000

Mark Bebbington -Liszt. St. John’s, Smith Square

“Mark Bebbington is better known as a champion of British music, but this all-Liszt recital at St. John’s, Smith Square on October 22nd, marking the composer’s 200th anniversary, will have come as a revelation to those who tend to pigeon-hole artists with regard to their repertoire. This was pianism of the highest order – which is saying a lot, for the programme chosen was wide ranging, from the first version of La Lugubre Gondola, the Sonata in B minor, with Reminiscences de Lucia di Lammermoor, Les jeux d’eau a la Villa d’Este and the Dante Sonata.

Here was majestic pianism, allied to an intellectual grasp of the finer points of the two Sonatas, illuminated by some really fine artistry. At times in Les jeux d’eau a la Villa d’Este I was reminded of those virtuosos of almost a century ago -Claudio Arrau’s late 1920s 78rpm disc of the work has always been my benchmark, but Bebbington on this occasion was its equal.

I do not know of a finer young pianist in this country at present; Bebbington’s Liszt playing is undoubtedly superb , and without going into flights of critical hyperbole I left St. John’s deeply thankful that I had attended this recital.”

Alexander Leonard, Musical Opinion, April, 2012

The Classical Review

infusion — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:07:25 +0000

“With his unassuming virtuosity, ingratiating timbre and immaculate touch, Mark Bebbington proves a wonderfully understanding champion of all this rewarding material. Both the sound and balance, too, are admirable in every respect (Birmingham’s Symphony Hall was the helpful venue), as are Robert Matthew-Walker’s knowledgeable and detailed booklet notes.”
Read the full review on The Classical Review »

The Observer

infusion — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:58:29 +0000

“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

Saturday Telegraph

infusion — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:57:39 +0000

“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

Classical Source

infusion — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:57:04 +0000

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

BBC Music Magazine

infusion — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:55:56 +0000

“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.”

5***** Review August BBC Music Magazine

BBC Music Magazine

infusion — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:54:57 +0000

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

Guardian

infusion — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:54:03 +0000

“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.”

Andrew Clements *** Guardian, June 2011

Review: Mark Bebbington, at St John’s Church, Hagley

infusion — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:53:07 +0000

Read Mark’s latest 5***** recital review »

BBC Music Instrumental Choice

infusion — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 09:49:42 +0000

“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.”

Mark Bebbington

Musical Opinion

Mark Bebbington -Liszt. St. John’s, Smith Square

Alexander Leonard, Musical Opinion, April, 2012

The Classical Review

The Observer

Stephen Pritchard, The Observer, Sunday 2 October 2011

Saturday Telegraph

Classical Source

Review on Classical Source for Mark’s new CD of William Mathias Piano Concertos Nos 1 and 2 and Vaughan Williams Fantasia – premiere recording

BBC Music Magazine

5***** Review August BBC Music Magazine

BBC Music Magazine

Calum MacDonald, BBC Music Magazine August 2011, Performance 5*****, Recording 5*****

Guardian

Andrew Clements *** Guardian, June 2011

Review: Mark Bebbington, at St John’s Church, Hagley

BBC Music Instrumental Choice

BBC Music Instrumental Choice, September BBC Music Magazine 5*****

Calum MacDonald, BBC Music Magazine August 2011, Performance 5, Recording 5