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Kit Armstrong's Magnificent Byrd and Bull Recital · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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  This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
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  Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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  Paid subscribers get downloads at the start of
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  each month and access to Zoom chats. And a new
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  episodes will be available to paid subscribers.
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  There's a link to my Substack page in this episode's
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  description. And if you click on that link, you
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  can subscribe. So please consider a subscription
• 0:41
  to help keep the Piano Maven in operation. I
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  want to talk about a release that came out in
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  2021, which I think was... possibly the best
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  piano release that came out in that year. And
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  it features the pianist Kit Armstrong, who was
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  highly, highly gifted. He's also a marvelous
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  composer as well. He first came to my attention
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  for several releases that he did for Sony Classical.
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  And also, I knew about him when he was Alfred
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  Brendel's protege. But this 2021 release was...
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  Kit Armstrong's debut for Deutsche Gramophone.
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  So far, it's been his only release on that label.
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  I don't know if there are more in the pipeline,
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  but this release is a total knockout. It's devoted
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  to keyboard works by the British Tudor composers
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  William Byrd and John Bull. Now, many pianists
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  have... tried this repertoire on the modern concert
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  grand with varying degrees of success. Probably
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  the most familiar recording is the one that Glenn
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  Gould made of pieces by William Byrd, also coupled
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  with pieces by another composer of that generation,
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  Orlando Gibbons. And Alan Feinberg recorded some
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  excellent John Bull on the concert grand for
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  the Steinway and Sons label. But Few pianists,
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  I think, have really internalized these composers
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  to the extent that Kit Armstrong does. In the
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  William Byrd works, I think Armstrong digs much
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  deeper than Glenn Gould, and that may sound like
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  heresy, but for all of Gould's stinging x -ray
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  clarity and surface scintillation, Kit Armstrong...
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  makes full yet very discerning use of the piano's
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  dynamic and coloristic resources, and basically
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  sings out more than Gould. For example, Armstrong
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  takes the William Byrd composition Selinger's
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  Round at a galloping and lilting clip that's
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  nearly twice the tempo of Gould's drier and more
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  uniformly articulated rendition. And he brings
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  more dynamism and drama and vocal orientation
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  to this piece along the way. And in the piece
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  titled Walsingham, Kit Armstrong gives each variation
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  a distinct musical and pianistic character that
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  makes most harpsichord performances of this piece
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  sound generalized and unvaried. One other interesting
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  comparison. can be found in John Bull's wonderful
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  Fantasia on a fugue of Sphelink. Kit Armstrong
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  opens this piece by creating a kind of veiled,
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  rounded, and rather caressing kind of sound world.
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  But over the course of the piece, his sonority
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  gradually opens up and his attack becomes harder
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  hitting. Now, there's something to be said for
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  Alan Feinberg's broader tempos and more pronounced
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  harmonic pointing, but I think that Armstrong
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  offers more timbral and textural contrast in
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  his interpretation. It's hard to say I like both
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  interpretations, but maybe I do lean toward Armstrong
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  in this piece. And in William Byrd's Ut Mi Re
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  Fantasia, Kit Armstrong's linear control and
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  total independence between the hands sounds as
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  if... there are two different pianists playing
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  on two different instruments. And I suspect that
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  if William Byrd had lived to experience the potential
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  of a modern concert grand in his music, he may
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  well have warmed over to Kit Armstrong's interpretations,
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  and maybe he would have put his little virginal
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  keyboard up for sale on eBay. I should add, Also,
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  that Kit Armstrong wrote superb and intelligently
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  insightful booklet notes for this release, and
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  the engineering is absolutely world -class. So,
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  if you have not heard Kit Armstrong's Bird and
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  Bull release, or you were wondering about it,
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  all I can say is that it went from my reviewer's
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  desk to my permanent collection in record time,
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  all puns intended, and I cannot recommend this
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  release highly enough. This is Jed Disler, and
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  you've been listening to The Piano Maven, your
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  friendly podcast guide to piano recordings. Thanks
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  for tuning in, and I look forward to being with
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  you for our next episode.