Mackenzie: Complete Music for Solo Piano, Vol. 1

Featuring

Christopher Howell
Alexander Campbell Mackenzie

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Recording & Production

This album was recorded at the studios of Griffa & Figli s.r.l. in Milan, Italy, on February 11, 2016, and February 14, 2017, using a Bösendorfer Imperial piano.

Composer Biography

Sir Alexander Campbell Mackenzie, the composer, experienced mental exhaustion in the late 1870s due to teaching pressures and relentless criticism from 'The Scotsman' newspaper.

Composer Biography

Mackenzie became a friend of Franz Liszt, the Hungarian composer and virtuoso pianist, during his recuperation in Italy in 1879.

Compositional Technique

Mackenzie's later piano works, such as 'Odds and Ends' and 'Varying Moods', show an experimental approach, aiming for a modern idiom that bypassed less pleasing aspects of contemporary European music.

Performer Biography

Christopher Howell, the pianist on this recording, studied piano with Colin Kingsley and composition with Kenneth Leighton and Edward Harper at Edinburgh University.

Composition History

Mackenzie's early piano works, including his sets of pieces opp. 13, 15, 20, and 23, were composed between 1877 and 1880, with the first three predating his move to Italy.

Composer Biography

Mackenzie served as Principal of the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) from 1887 until 1924, returning to London under pressure to restore the institution's former glory.