David Earl - David Earl: 75th Birthday Tribute (2026) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 1, Molto energico
02. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 2, Lento lugubre
03. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 3, Allegretto
04. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 4, Lento sostenuto
05. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 5, Presto
06. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 6, Marcia quasi funebre
07. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 7, Presto
08. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 8, Allegro risoluto
09. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 9, Molto lento
10. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 10, Andante poco lento
11. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 11, Vivace
12. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 12, Lento malinconico
13. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 13, Allegro veloce
14. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 14, Lento ruminato
15. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 15, Lento elegiaco
16. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 16, Tempo di valzer
17. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 17, Amabile
18. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 18, Allegro tempestoso
19. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 19, Languido con amore
20. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 20, Adagio
21. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 21, Allegro
22. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 22, Con moto
23. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 23, Andante maestoso
24. Oxymorons – 24 Preludes: No. 24, Andante mysterioso
25. Scenes from a South African Childhood: No. 1, The gardens at Old Nectar
26. Scenes from a South African Childhood: No. 2, Princess Rainbow
27. Scenes from a South African Childhood: No. 3, At Bain’s Kloof (Baboon dance)
28. Scenes from a South African Childhood: No. 4, The blue dressing-gown (A lullaby)
29. Scenes from a South African Childhood: No. 5, At Groot Drakenstein
30. Scenes from a South African Childhood: No. 6, At Rhodes Memorial (An elegy)
31. Scenes from a South African Childhood: No. 7, Bringing in the nets at Fish Hoek
32. Scenes from a South African Childhood: No. 8, The fig tree hammock
33. Scenes from a South African Childhood: No. 9, Christmas at Rose Cottage

SOMM Recordings is proud to celebrate the “stylish and powerful” (The Times) South African-born pianist-composer David Earl with a 75thBirthday Tribute. The release features Oxymorons – 24 Preludes (1993) and Scenes from a South African Childhood – 9 pieces for solo piano (2013). Of interest is that the second of these childhood scenes, “Princess Rainbow,” was included on the much-praised African Pianismrelease [SOMMCD 0647] by pianist Rebeca Omordia.

David Earl was born in Stellenbosch in South Africa’s Western Cape in 1951. He made his professional piano debut aged 16 with the South African Broadcasting Corporation and played Mendelssohn’s First Piano Concerto with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra the following year. He moved to London when he was 19 to study at the Trinity College of Music, performing the first of a number of solo piano recitals at Wigmore Hall while still a student and broadcasting live on BBC Radio 3.

Jeremy Nicholas, writing for Gramophone, has said, “For those who like their contemporary music tonal, substantial and individual … David Earl is certainly a name to add to your list.” Earl gave the premiere of his Piano Suite No 1 Mosaics at Wigmore Hall in 1977. His First Piano Concerto and Chéri, a ballet commissioned for The Scottish Ballet, followed in quick succession. His extensive catalogue includes further ballet scores, operas, chamber music, choral and vocal works, film scores, a wide range of concerti for various instruments, and works for solo piano.

David Earl teaches at Cambridge University, and, prior to settling there, he spent seven years in Oxford. He describes Oxymorons as miniature tone poems reflecting friends and places he encountered during his Oxford years. The title also relates to the paradoxical idea that he was writing tonal music at a time when it was not considered de rigueur. Following the same order as Preludes by Chopin and others, this set begins in C major and its relative minor, and cycles through all the keys to F major and D minor.

The nine pieces that make up Scenes from a South African Childhood are personal essays from a specific time and place, which are universally evocative through their very specificity. David Earl grew up on the small estate, Old Nectar, in the Jonkershoek Valley north of Cape Town. The music evokes scenes of a young David walking through the gardens of Old Nectar with his mother; flyfishing with his father in the river flowing through the valley; vacationing at Groot Drakenstein and discovering there Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25, which becomes indelibly associated with the place. Then moving to Cape Town, where its monuments, beaches, trees, and warm southern-hemisphere Christmases create their own nostalgia, expressed here through music.