On Wednesday, an intimate audience were treated to a beautiful performance of Stephen Dodgson’s Five Occasional Pieces at Emma Abbate and Evva Mizerska’s launch concert of their Toccata Classics recording of Dodgson cello and piano works. The performance was further enhanced by the elegant architecture of the St Margaret Pattens Church, a little gem of a church tucked away in the heart of the City of London. Alongside the Dodgson, Emma and Evva also performed Janáček’s Pohadka and Algernon Ashton’s Arioso which they have also recently recorded. Toccata’s Martin Anderson explained to us that Ashton, sadly forgotten but being gradually revived, wrote music […]
On the 3rd and 4th November, Lucian Plessner and the Philharmonisches Orchester Plauen-Zwickau performed Stephen Dodgson’s Concerto No. 2 for Guitar and Chamber Orchestra, a work very close to his heart. Here he tells us more about his experience and the back story of the concerto. “I don’t remember exactly which year the CBS Masterworks record featuring Stephen Dodgson’s 2nd guitar concerto was released with John Williams and the ECO under Sir Charles Groves. I asked Sony, but they couldn’t find out either. It must have been in the late 1970s or early ’80s. I do remember very clearly though […]
We are delighted to announce a new recording on the Naxos label – the first four sets of harpsichord Inventions by Stephen Dodgson. Professor Glen Wilson, who set up the project in collaboration with the Stephen Dodgson Charitable Trust, gives us an insight into the music, the performer and the process of setting up the recording Masterpieces performed by a master harpsichordist “A major step towards a wider dissemination of Stephen’s important corpus of harpsichord music was taken this September (2016) when the first four sets of his Inventions, 24 pieces in all, were recorded in Würzburg, Germany, by a brilliant […]
2015-16 sees Toccata Classics produce five new recordings of Stephen Dodgson chamber works. Below, Stephen’s widow, the harpsichordist Jane Clark Dodgson, gives her perspective on the music and the talented artists performing it. “It is very exciting for me, as Stephen Dodgson’s widow, to report that Toccata Classics will be releasing a series of recordings of his chamber music – which at the moment looks like being five albums. Allow me to outline what you can look forward to. The first of this series, just released, is of his music for cello and piano, played by Evva Mizerska and Emma […]
We are excited to announce the release of the complete works for cello and piano by Stephen Dodgson performed by cellist Evva Mizerska and pianist Emma Abbate, for whom several of the works were written. The works present Stephen’s musical personality in a nutshell. The style is direct but rich in allusion, from Purcell to Janáček, with a lively, sometimes brittle, sense of humour adding a Shostakovichian irony, all fused together in an elegant, individual voice. And the remarkable clarity of the instrumental textures underlines a strong sense of narrative, with the cello almost as a human voice, unfolding its […]
We’re thrilled to discover that Craig Ogden will be playing two movements from Stephen’s Partita No.1 on BBC Radio 3’s In Tune this Monday (3rd October) as part of Radio 3’s residency at the South Bank. Hear it in person at the Royal Festival Hall foyer or tune your ‘sets’ in at 4.30pm! Craig also performed two of Stephen’s partitas at the last Barnes Music Festival and will be performing Stephen’s ‘Watersmeet’ for solo guitar and guitar ensemble at the same festival on 24th March next year. No related posts.
We at the Stephen Dodgson Charitable Trust are delighted to announce planned release of five new commercial recordings on the Toccata Classics label of works spanning Stephen Dodgson’s lifetime. The discs will be: 1. Complete works for cello and piano (played by cellist Evva Mizerska and pianist Emma Abbate) 2. String quintet and two piano quintets (played by the Tippett Quartet, cellist Susan Monks and pianist Emma Abbate) 3. Dodgson oboe collection including music for oboe and piano, oboe and harp, songs with oboe obbligato and the Cor Anglais Sonata featuring oboist James Turnbull (oboist) Robyn Allegra Parton (soprano), Eleanor Turner (harp) and […]
Exceptional young guitarist Sungbin Cho, winner of the London International Guitar Competition in 2021, performs Stephen Dodgson’s Guitar Quintet with the Asaka Quartet in an evening performance at the Royal Academy of Music. Graduating with a BMus from the Korea National University of Arts, Sungbin Cho subsequently served in the Republic of Korea Air Force where he completed his two-year military service before entering the Royal Academy of Music to undertake an MA in Performance, with Michael Lewin. He is the first Korean national to play classical guitar at the RAM. Sungbin Cho – guitar Asaka Quartet: Iona Mcdonald – Violin I[...]
Pegasus presents a choice selection of beautiful choral pieces exploring themes of day and night, sleep, and nature, including Stephen Dodgson’s Four Poems of Mary Coleridge and Two Choral Songs, the latter setting verses from Ronald Fletcher’s Old Pathways.
This year, the Barnes Music Festival sees the launch of a year-long international choral project, which marks the 10th anniversary of the composer’s death (2023) and his centenary year (2024) and encourages choirs and vocal groups all over the world to perform and record Stephen Dodgson rich and varied choral output. To mark the start of the project, Barnes Music Festival host a three-choir concert with the opportunity to browse scores and a catalogue detailing Stephen Dodgson’s choral works. Programme ‘Tis Almost One Four Poems of Mary Coleridge Home-bred pictures Two Choral Songs Barnes Festival Consort – dir. James Day Pegasus[...]
The Vickers-Bovey Duo perform a programme at the Barnes Music Festival based around nature and the works of Stephen Dodgson, who wrote prolifically for guitar composing many works for Julian Bream and John Williams, also paying tribute to one of his favourite composers Leoš Janáček. The duo received the Principal’s Prize at the Birmingham Conservatoire and graduated from the Royal Academy of Music with Distinction and the Performance Diploma in 2016. Programme Dodgson – Promenade Janáček – In The Mists (arr. Bovey) Rameau – Pieces de Clavecin (arr. Vickers/Bovey) Dodgson – Riversong
Shining new light on an old treasure. This Barnes Music Festival concert centres around ‘A Beautiful Object’: the harpsichord, with a new work of that same name by a rising figure on the contemporary music scene, composer Héloïse Werner. Auspiciously absent at the start, the harpsichord is introduced with music of its main era, in an arrangement that links its celebrated past to the present. With Héloïse’s piece, then follows an exciting journey of discoveries. Stephen Dodgson’s Sonata has beautiful serenade-like character, with its last movement a nod to the harpsichord’s illustrious past, guiding us back in time again to[...]
Exceptional young guitarist Sungbin Cho, winner of the London International Guitar Competition in 2021, performs his final recital at the Royal Academy of Music: a complete concert of Dodgson guitar works. Programme Partita no. 1 Fantasy-Divisions Guitar Quintet (with the Asaka Quartet) Guitar Concerto (with orchestra) Graduating with a BMus from the Korea National University of Arts, Sungbin Cho subsequently served in the Republic of Korea Air Force where he completed his two-year military service before entering the Royal Academy of Music to undertake an MA in Performance, with Michael Lewin. He is the first Korean national to play classical guitar[...]
Join the Mēla Guitar Quartet in a wonderfully eclectic evening hosted by the Luton Music Club featuring Stephen Dodgson’s Change-Ringers alongside works by Philip Houghton and Laura Snowden and arrangements of Bach, Debussy, Ravel, Glinka, Milhaud, Bizet, Sain-Saëns, and Brubeck and Desmond. The quartet recently recorded Change-Ringers as part of a delightful collection of Dodgson guitar chamber works. Programme Camille Saint-Saëns – Bacchanale from Samson and Delilah arr. Bovey Claude Debussy – Deux Arabesques arr. Tarlton Andante con Moto; Allegretto Scherzando Phillip Houghton – Opals (1995) Black Opal; Water Opal; White Opal J.S. Bach – Organ fugue BWV 578 arr. Mēla Mikhail Glinka – Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture arr.[...]