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To mark her seventieth birthday, Sally Beamish returns to the instrument that has shaped her musical life: the viola. House of Wonder explores recent works written by Beamish for herself to play, alongside new pieces she has commissioned especially for this recording from her three children – themselves all accomplished musicians – and other close collaborators.
Autobiography runs through the programme. Childhood memories surface in Crescent; poetry and jazz inflections shape the intimate cycle Night Songs; and tributes from friends and family expand the viola’s expressive world in unexpected directions. Contributions from Ryan Corbett, Joseph Havlat, Rosalind Ventris, Imogen Whitehead, Stephanie Irvine and the spoken voice of Beamish’s husband Peter Thomson create a circle of musical friendships around Beamish’s playing. Another crucial element is the viola made by Stephanie Irvine in 2014, which inspired her mother’s return to the instrument on which she had first made her career as a performer in the 1980s.
'an eclectic and profoundly personal album featuring friends and members of her talented musical family. At the centre of it all is Beamish herself, a musical shapeshifter, at home in classical, jazz or folk fiddle, performing on her own instrument, the viola.
It opens with April, a luminous chaconne for viola and accordion memorialising her friend, jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis Jr. Equally poignant is Gerropaedie for viola and harp, a Satie-inspired birthday gift for an elderly patron.
Much here is autobiographical. Crescent, a trio for viola, piano and trumpet, is inspired by family games growing up in Islington, wistfully offset by what she refers to as her father’s emotional absence. The likeable Sally’s Tune is a portrait piece by Celtic folk musicians Catriona McKay and Chris Stout.'
'It seems only yesterday that Sally Beamish quit as principal viola of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra to pursue a career as a successful composer. That was over 30 years ago. Now 70, she’s released a very personal album “with friends and family” celebrating the milestone. Her own music and viola playing feature prominently. Accordionist Ryan Corbett joins her in April, an exquisite tribute to the late jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis Jr, while trumpeter Imogen Whitehead and pianist Joseph Havlat feature in Crescent, a playful evocation of London childhood memories. Other Beamish works include the haunting Glanz for solo viola and the feisty Prelude and Canon for two warring violas. From family members there’s son Laurie Irvine’s spiky tango-like Lurk, the heated angst of other son Tom’s Where You Are, and daughter Stephanie’s haunting, beautifully sung House of Wonder. There’s much more besides, including Chris Stout and Catriona McKay’s toe-tapping Sally’s Tune.'
★★★★★
'Sally Beamish's approaching 70th birthday makes this latest release a welcome overview of her chamber output, primarily from the past decade. Not least with its inclusion of pieces for her own instrument, the viola, to which she had returned after a pause of more than 20 years.
The two collections find Beamish at her most personal. The five pieces of Crescent reflect in intimate but not always nostalgic terms on aspects of her childhood and adolescence, whereas three Night Songs integrate verse by Duffy, Yeats and Auden into their musical fabric with no mean resourcefulness and not least as declaimed with the expressive agility of Peter Thomson. Gerropaedie is a poised if hardly Satie-esque 80th-birthday tribute to friend and patron Gerry Mattock, Glanz her eloquent (obliquely Schoenbergian) memorial for Peter Maxwell Davies, Prelude and Canon as trenchant a workout for violas as it was in its original guise for violins ...
The recordings feel as sensitively attuned to their composer's idiom as expected, abetted by the spacious acoustic of Menuhin Hall and enhanced with detailed annotations from Andrew Stewart. Beamish's many admirers will find this to be an appealing and affecting anthology.'
Release date: 12 June 2026
Recorded on 2-4 September 2024 at The Menuhin Hall, Cobham, Surrey
Producer/Engineer: Paul Baxter
24-bit digital editing: Jack Davis
24-bit digital mixing & mastering: Paul Baxter
Piano technician: Julian Day
Cover concept and photography: © Sarah Hickson
Cover (graphic layout): Will Coates-Gibson
Booklet & digipack design: Eliot Garcia
Booklet editor: John Fallas
Session photography: Will Coates-Gibson/ Foxbrush
Collections: All Releases, Chamber, Contemporary, New Releases, Piano
Category: Accordion, Chamber, Contemporary, Harp, Imogen Whitehead, Joseph Havlat, Piano, Ryan Corbett, Sally Beamish, Trumpet, Viola