SONATA FOR TWO PIANOS op.130 (June 1971)

Duration: 12:15
First Performance: July 28th 1995 as part of a two-piano recital given by Wayne Marshall and Howard Blake at the Kings Lynn Festival.
Full score for sale
Study score for sale
Instrumental / piano score for sale
Instrumental parts for sale

Piano 1 and Piano 2 are published as separate parts, but the work is also available in one score (2 scores then being available available as a performance set)

Live concert recording for study purposes

Movements

• 1: allegro
  
• 2: lento
  
• 3: scherzando
  
• 4: presto
  

Notes

Whilst visiting his parents in Brighton in the summer of 1971 the composer sketched out this work as an exercise in sonata form, failing at the time either to make a fair copy of it or perform it. The piano writing is virtuosic and often percussive and there are four movements. The first is a dramatic Allegro, bristling with chromatic chords and cross-rhythms; the second a reflective Lento; the third a Scherzo, and the fourth an energetic  Rondo.

The work only came back into mind after meeting pianist Wayne Marshall in 1994, when they spent an evening jointly improvising on two concert grand pianos at the CBS Whitfield Street studios in London. A rapport was born, they began rehearsing and searching out repertoire, and Blake discovered the sonata, writing it out and revising it.

Performances

13th July 2008

Tetsu and Masaki (Piano Duo), Piano Art Salon (small salon), Tokyo, Japan Concert of Modern British Music for two pianos (Arnold, McCabe,Blake, Davies, Bennett)