REVIEWS
Orchestral works Musicweb 2018 Peter Dickinson: Orchestral Works, Heritage HTGCD 211 Peter Dickinson's works have many musical influences incuding ragtime, jazz, musicals & pop, coupled with electronic playback, serial music, aleatory and traditional forms. Composers who have had an impact on Dickinson include Stravinsky, Berkeley, Sastie & Ives. Yet all this is not just pieced together like beads on a string but is cleverly synthesised intothe composer's unique voice. For newcomers to Dickinson, I suggest listenting to the Satie Transformations first.This is an excellent essay, a masterpiece really, that exhibits his method ofworking to great advantage. One of the composer's tools is a device known as style modulation where 'serious' and 'popular' musical styles are mixed together in a subtle and satisfying way...Satie Transformations isbased on three of Satie's best-known piano pieces, the first three Gnossiennes. The concept is to bring together 'straight and swung' elements, sometimes played consecutively: at times concurrently. The music has considerable sophistication at a formal and orchestral level, in spite of its undoubtably accessible style. A Birthday Surprise cannot be overlooked. Dickinson has provided three variations that breathe a refreshing sense of innovation to this quotidian and hackneyed tune...Merseyside Echoes is fantastic, emjoyable & evocative...What Dickinson has achieved is a definitive piece of crossover music. It also showcases his skill at working with dissimilar genres & sound worlds... This is an outstanding retrospective of Peter Dickinson's orchestral music.It is brilliantly played, finely recorded & well presented...This is an essential CD for all admirers of Dickinson's eclectic style of composition in particular, and for approachable, sometimes challenging, but always enjoyable modern music in general. John France, Musicweb International, July 2018.
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