John McCabe, piano : Farewell Recital

Piano International (May, 2012)
A point of order to start: I wrote the biographical introduction to Toccata Classics’ CD but otherwise had no involvement in its production. The disc presents the major part of McCabe’s valedictory recital given in Presteigne on 29 August 2010. Devised by the composer as a retrospective of his performing history, it featured composers of special import to him – Haydn, Ravel, Saxton, Schubert – as well as premieres by Casken and Liverpool-born Emily Howard, and a work he considers one of his own finest, Tenebrae. Toccata’s disc omits Haydn’s G minor Sonata (Hob XVI:44) and Saxton’s Chacony, as McCabe’s recordings of these are available elsewhere, and opens with the …