ERIK CHISHOLM

Piano Music Volume 7

Elegies (No. 1 after Dàn Luighair ‘A Collection if Highland Airs’ no. 120

No. 2 after Tha mo ghruaidhean air preasadh ‘A Collection of Airs’ no. 7 (first Version)

No. 2 (Second Version)/ No. 3 after Gur muladach tha mi’s gun mhacnus, gun mhanran ‘A Collection of Highland Airs’ no. 123

No. 4 based on Dàn Luighair); Peter Pan Suite; Praeterita (Sonataina no. 4) – First Movement; Suite No. 1; Suite No. 2; Suite No. 3 (Ballet)

Murray McLachlan

This is the seventh and final volume of the series. The first four volumes formed the basis of a recent feature on BBC Radio Scotland studying the piano music of Erik Chisholm, and narrated by Murray McLachlan. These performances have been hailed by one critic as one of the musical discoveries and revelations of the Twenty-First century.

Erik Chisholm (1904-1965) was the leading Scottish modernist composer and a promoter of modernist music of international significance. He was also a vital force in the revival of operas. He brought Bartók, Hindemith and Casella to Scotland, rescued Walton in a performance of Facade; and it was for him Sorabji deigned to perform his Opus Clavicembalisticum. He was a founder of the Celtic Ballet.

In his compositions, his knowledge and use of Scottish traditional music remains unsurpassed. He was the first composer to absorb Celtic idioms into his music in form as well as content, his achievement paralleling that of Bartók in its depth of understanding and its daring.

“Murray McLachlan is a pianist with a virtuoso technique and a sure sense of line. His timing and phrasing are impeccable, and his tone - full but unforced in the powerful passages, gentle and restrained in the more lyrical - is a perpetual delight” (BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE)

As a concert artist Murray McLachlan has received outstanding critical acclaim for intelligent and sensitive interpretations and superb technical ability. His prolific discography, much of it for Divine Art and Dunelm, has received long-standing international recognition and includes over thirty commercial recordings, including the complete sonatas of Beethoven and Prokofiev and many rarities.

Divine Art DDV24155