Grainger: Piano Music - Country Gardens, Shepherd's Hey; Cake-Walk Smasher etc.

The solo piano music of Percy Grainger comprises about ninety works, many of which are transcriptions of earlier orchestral or instrumental compositions. Grainger was an inveterate arranger and transcriber of music: of his own compositions, of folk-music from around the world, and of works by masters from Bach and Dowland to Fauré and Richard Strauss. Despite his apparently loathing the piano, it being 'an affront to destroy a melodiously conceived idea by trying to fit it into the limitations of two hands and a box full of hammers and strings', the nineteen works in this recital capture all the humour, charm and sheer bravado of such 'dish-ups' as Handel in the Strand, Country Gardens and the rest.