Danny Driver, the pianist on this recording, won both the Royal Over-Seas League Competition Keyboard Award and the BBC Radio 2 Young Musician of the Year Competition in 2001.
Critical Reception
Benjamin Dale's Piano Sonata in D minor won a competition organized by pianist Mark Hambourg in 1906 to identify outstanding new works.
Composition History
Benjamin Dale's Piano Sonata in D minor was begun in 1902 and first performed in its entirety by its dedicatee, York Bowen, in November 1905.
Composer Biography
Benjamin Dale was interned in Ruhleben internment camp outside Berlin during the Great War, which may have contributed to a decline in his health and compositional output.
Recording & Production
This album was recorded in Henry Wood Hall, London, with the Dale pieces recorded in July 2010 and the Bowen pieces in December 2010.
Compositional Technique
The technical demands of Benjamin Dale's Piano Sonata in D minor are forbidding, operating at a consistent level of intricacy that requires stamina and concentration from the performer.
Composer Biography
Benjamin Dale and York Bowen, both composers featured on this album, started at the Royal Academy of Music on the same day in 1900, aged only fifteen.
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