Leighton: Piano Works

Featuring

Margaret Fingerhut
Kenneth Leighton

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Composer Biography

Kenneth Leighton (the composer) was a highly accomplished pianist, and his work as both a composer and musician frequently centered on the piano.

Compositional Technique

During a period of study in Rome with avant-garde composer Goffredo Petrassi, Leighton developed a more individual musical language, incorporating increasingly chromatic writing and rhythmic inventiveness.

Composition History

Leighton often composed for the piano out of inner compulsion rather than commissions, creating a diverse body of solo works, as well as pieces for two pianos and piano duet, and three solo piano concertos.

Composer Biography

Leighton's early experimental piano works were composed at an upright piano in his parents' modest four-room terraced house in Wakefield, West Yorkshire.

Composition History

Leighton's first published work was for piano, and the last music he wrote before his death at 58 was a set of piano Preludes, partially complete at the time.

Performer Biography

Margaret Fingerhut, the pianist on this recording, is known for her imaginatively designed recital programs and her long-standing fascination with lesser-known repertoire.