Alec Rowley had the misfortune to expire during a game of tennis in the same year that Vaughan Williams and Joseph Holbrooke shuffled of the mortal coil and so his passing was, perhaps, somewhat overshadowed in musical circles. For a long while his jazzy little song "The Kangaroo" was a school-choir favourite and it was published with a Welsh translation of the words , presumably for use at Eisteddfod competitions.
I have a personal affection for his music as his "Miniature Concerto" was the first concerto I played in public ...at a school speech day when I was a sixth-former with a fifth-form friend thumping away the orchestral part on a second piano ! The Miniature Concerto doesn't seem to have been recorded ....but I think I still have a reel to reel recording of it from a BBC afternoon light music broadcast...but the more substantial Concerto in D was recorded by Naxos with Peter Donohoe as soloist. The concerto in D is typical of the strengths and weaknesses of Rowley's essays in the larger forms...some memorable, often rather lovely ideas but a weakness in construction of some of the movements with a tendency to ramble.
This is true of the two Sonatas included on the Dutton disc. Rowley was essentially a miniaturist and the shorter pieces , often impressionistic in mood and title, show him worthy to be considered alongside such composers as Ireland and Bax in their less demanding moments and Billy Mayerl in his more "Serious" efforts. Certainly his piano music couldn't find a more persuasive advocate than John Lenehan.
Although some of Rowley's music remains in print (the First Sonata published in France for example) most of it is now unavailable making this disc even more valuable for those interested in some of the lesser figures of British twentieth century music. I collected Rowley's scores when many were still available or hanging around in second-hand book shops. I'm surprised at the number of publishers he had works with...Lengnick, Swan, Peters, J W Chester , Augener, Curwen , Hinrichsen,Boosey & Hawkes to name some of them . Probably only Joseph Holbrooke dealt with quite so many different publishers great and small. It must testify to the one-time popularity of Rowley's music.
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