Cyril Scott: Piano Sonata No. 1, At Dawn & Pierrot tirste No. 1

"At over 13 minutes the first movement is a substantial accomplishment; like a carefully nourished hothouse vine, filigree tendrils curve back around and under themselves while the mood veers restlessly between sombre, tranquil and quietly ecstatic… The last movement opens with a fugal figure, which jars after so much romantic efflorescence; however, what follows is no academic fugue, and soon we are plunged back into a thicket of decorative notes, which somehow achieve a rather abrupt and conventionally grand ending…No praise can be high enough for either Callaghan’s dazzling pianism, nor his adventurous programming. While the recording is as good as ever from this eminent label, this is a disc to which I will (have to) return, and it is strongly recommended to the patient and dedicated." Kevin Mandry, British Music Society

"There are so many elements in the work that came from current musical fashion: continuous transformation, modality, whole-tone writing, avoidance of conventional cadences, and chord streams, all used within a chromatic harmony. One of its innovations, however, was the constant changing of time signature. Scott said this was inspired by Percy Grainger’s metrical experiments, and it is thought to have been an influence on similar time changes in Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring...

British pianist Simon Callaghan is known for championing piano rarities and bringing works that have fallen into obscurity back into the limelight. His performance on this recording is authoritative and accomplished, particularly in a work that requires a virtuosity that caused ‘pianist Scott [to curse] his composer self for having made it so difficult’." Maureen Buja, INTURLUDE

"The British pianist Simon Callaghan, an intrepid explorer of forgotten as well as mainstream repertoire, has recorded Scott's substantial Piano Sonata No 1 (Lyrita), with two shorter pieces, sensuous and poetic, At Dawn and Pierrot triste. Scott has been called "the English Debussy". That may be to boost him to unreal heights, but in terms of style it's a useful start: cascades of notes, an often unearthly moos and, for this English eccentric, a few French accents. Callaghan gives shape and muscularity to this wistful music." Fiona Maddocks 

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Cyril Meir Scott is one of a group of British composers to have benefitted from three cultural features of recent decades: increased curiosity from performers and listeners; a more inclusive outlook from musicologists and critics; and the music industry spotting a gap and a demand. A much more colourful picture of British music in the first half of the twentieth century has resulted. Scott was a prolific writer of fiction and nonfiction as well as a composer of several hundred pieces. His writings and music are deeply invested in mysticism and the occult. This element in Scott’s work, as Sarah Collins has noted, helps us to see beyond received notions of Scott as either a trivial exoticist or an unjustly-neglected pioneer, and to appreciate his music on its own terms.

Simon Callaghan performs internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, in parallel with a highly successful career as a recording artist. Simon Callaghan’s distinguished and eclectic discography includes recordings for Hyperion, Nimbus and Lyrita among others. He has a strong profile on BBC Radio3 and on a variety of streaming platforms, his most recent single on Apple Music with Coco Tomita surpassing 1 million streams in the first month of its release. He is a strong social media enthusiast, using it as a form of promotion for classical music in general but seeing it as a particular tool in his advocacy of the rare and unexplored. Director of Music at London’s celebrated Conway Hall, only the sixth incumbent since the founding of the series in 1887. He was elected a Steinway Artist in 2012." PrestoMusic