| …the Sonatina by Peter Thompson [is] without doubt [a] masterpiece… | ||
| —Coley, Amazon review (September 2014) |
Click the quotation text to discover what it refers to!
| …the Sonatina by Peter Thompson [is] without doubt [a] masterpiece… | ||
| —Coley, Amazon review (September 2014) |
Click the quotation text to discover what it refers to!
Fand Music Press is a publisher of high quality sheet music, CDs and books, all focussing on accessible 20th Century and contemporary composers and concentrating mainly on first editions. Please use the tabs at the top of the page to explore the catalogue. Further details, such as information about ordering, can be found on the Contact/Info page.
A century ago this month, Peter Warlock became the tenant of a cottage in Eynsford, Kent, and was joined there by his friend, fellow composer E. J. Moeran. This period of shared habitation marked the beginning of the ‘Warlock Legend’: a time of riotous living with an open house policy to all kinds of outré visitors. It was a productive time for Warlock; less so for Moeran, who found the situation at the cottage too distracting to permit significant creativity. The shared tenancy lasted for only a relatively brief period of under three years, but it was a notable time during which Warlock composed his best-known work, Capriol.
John Mitchell’s latest publication, Eynsford Days, brings together two of his compositions in styles that pay tribute to both Warlock and Moeran individually. Both pieces were written some time ago: the Warlock tribute was composed as long ago as 1976 for saxophone quartet, but has since been rearranged for several different instrumentations, and the piano solo version published here is brand new. The Moeran tribute piece was originally written in 2006, and both individual compositions have been paired in this new publication to commemorate the centenary of the start of the interesting Eynsford-based joint period in Warlock’s and Moeran’s association.
Fand Music Press has recently won yet another award. This time, as part of Acquisition International Magazine’s 2025 Global Excellence Awards, Fand has been awarded:
Remarkably, in the space of only half a year, pianist Ennio Caironi has undertaken and completed the recording of Peter Thompson’s entire published output of solo piano (and other keyboard) music. The recordings may all be listened to on this site, just by browsing Peter’s appropriate publications.
For ease of access, though, and to commemorate this milestone, here is a list of all of Peter’s solo keyboard works, each of which now has at least one associated recording performed by Ennio:
Ennio has also provided his own recording of John Mitchell’s volume of piano arrangements of songs by E. J. Moeran, Songs Without the Words.
The tail end of 2024 sees the publications of a couple of new works by Peter Thompson, though only one of them is newly written.
October for Bassoon and String Quartet was composed back in October 1991. The work is in a single rhapsodic movement, sometimes darkly dreaming, at other times light-splashed with colour and joy – reflecting, therefore, aspects of the month of October.
Antique Dreams, by contrast, is a new work, though its title and unusual choice of instrument is suggestive of autumnal thoughts of a different kind. Written for solo Clavichord, it is a sequence of five short, delicate movements that evoke music of earlier ages but with distinctly modern overtones.
The Safe Return is a delightfully idiomatic folk tune written by Julian Farmer, poet and skilful folk musician. Peter Thompson has arranged the tune for either oboe/violin or ’cello with piano accompaniment. The score comes with all instrumental parts included.
Having previously been awarded Sheet Music Publisher of the Year for two years running by the SME News Southern Enterprise Awards, Fand Music Press’ is thrilled to have now repeated this achievement with the internationally recognised Corporate LiveWire Global Award, which it has just been awarded for the second year in a row:
Once again, Fand is delighted to receive this recognition for its services to contemporary classical music publishing in such a competitive market.
The award text again notes in particular “the quality of the publisher’s platform” and how it is “easy to explore the sheet music, recordings, and books that Fand Music Press offers in its impressive catalogue” of more than 40 composers, authors and recording artists.
Ennio Caironi has put in a Herculean effort and completed the recording of all the solo piano music by Peter Thompson. Many thanks to him for his remarkable efforts.
Ennio Caironi has provided Fand with more of his superb recordings of piano music by Peter Thompson. As before, many of them are première recordings, and they may be found on the pages about the individual pieces:
Pianist Ennio Caironi has recently done Fand the great service of providing us with recordings of a significant number of mostly very difficult piano pieces by Peter Thompson and Sir Arnold Bax. They are wonderful performances, too: all very well played and nicely recorded. Moreover, these are première recordings of most of the Thompson works. The pieces that Ennio has recorded are as follows, and they may be heard by following the links to the pages about the individual pieces, where a playback control may be found:
Several pieces of music published by Fand are to be performed in a fascinating concert near Cambridge towards the end of April. A Choral Concert with Church Bells is being held to celebrate the installation of two new bells in All Saints’ Church, Landbeach, augmenting the bell tower from four to six bells. A BBC News story has further details about the bells and their installation.
The concert is being performed by the St Augustine’s Singers, conducted by Philip Mead, and the programme will include two of Philip’s own compositions: Christmas Bells and The Nightingale – both with suitably adapted words – together with Richard Hallas’s arrangement of Suo Gân.
| Title: | A Choral Concert with Church Bells |
| Venue: | All Saints’ Church
Green End Landbeach Cambridge CB25 9FD (See on a map…) |
| Date: | Saturday, 27th April |
| Time: | 6 pm (finishes around 7:30) |
| Price: | FREE Donations welcome Refreshments and bar available |
The concert is due to be featured on local radio.
For further details, visit the concert’s Facebook event page.
Previous announcements may be found in the Fand News Archive.
