Ian Venables (b.1955) Piano Quintet etc.

[Alan Howe]

How about this CD of beautiful music?>>
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/7991110--ian-venables-chamber-works#reviews

[Mark Thomas]

Oh, I say, that's a welcome surprise!

[Alan Howe]

It was praised to the skies by Simon Heffer in his Hinterland column in the Daily Telegraph back in May...
https://ianvenables.com/hinterland-composer-profile-by-simon-heffer/

[semloh]

Thanks for drawing attention to this, Alan. Sorry to say, I had never heard of him until your post.

A number of short works by Ian Venables can be heard on YT, including the Soliloquy, and the Elegy, Op.2 - works which appear on the new disc - and excerpts from a Naxos disc of his piano music. Lovely!

[matesic]

Musical criticism often says more about the critic than the music and my views aren't worth any more than the next person's, but listening to the first movement of the piano quintet I get the feeling the 20th century never happened. This may well be Venables' intention but he seems to have taken great care to avoid making any sounds that might have been considered "radical" or even a bit unconventional in the nineteen noughties. I was constantly hoping and expecting something would "happen" - maybe it does in the later movements? I do wonder whether the piece would have been rated at all highly if it had appeared in, say, 1910?

[semloh]

Can't argue with that, matesic, and I suppose that's why I like it!