Sixteen Love Songs William Howard

• 1Mendelssohn - Lieder, S547/R217 (7 Lieder from Mendelssohn, Op, 19a, 34, 47): Auf Flugeln des Gesanges (from Op. 34, No. 2)04:13
• 2Schubert - Schwanengesang, S560/R245: No. 7. Standchen, Leise flehen meine Lieder05:42
• 3Schumann - Liebeslied, S566/R253, Widmung04:16
• 4Liebestraume, S541/R211: No. 3. Nocturne in A-Flat Major04:42
• 5Bagatelles et impromptus: VII. Love02:19
• 6Poeticke nalady (Poetic Tone Pictures), Op. 85, B. 161: No. 9. Serenade05:40
• 7No. 44 in B-Flat Major: Andante03:17
• 8No. 36 in B-Flat Major: Andante amoroso02:12
• 9Moods, Impressions and Reminiscences, Op. 41, Book 4: No. 139 in D-Flat Major: Lento01:35
• 10Serenády, Op. 903:38
• 116 Piano Pieces, Op. 7: No. 1. Song of Love07:01
• 12Po zarostlem chodnicku (On the Overgrown Path), Book 1, JW VIII/17: No. 2. Listek odvanuty (A Blown Away Leaf)03:22
• 133 Romances sans paroles, Op. 17: No. 3 in A-Flat Major02:37
• 14Goyescas, Book 1: No. 4. Quejas, o La maja y el ruisenor06:48
• 15Kreisler - Liebesleid05:06
• 164 Lieder, Op. 27, TrV 170: No. 4. Morgen (arr. M. Reger for piano)04:00
• Total Runtime01:06:28

Info for Sixteen Love Songs

This new album features 16 19th & 20th century songs without words, many of which are known to us through use in film and popular song.

Sixteen Love Songs forms part of a project designed to explore contemporary realisations of the love song genre. William has also commissioned a collection of 16 new love songs to act as responses to those on the album.

A founding member of the Schubert Ensemble of London William is well known as a solo pianist. Previous solo recordings have won a Gramophone Critics’ Choice, a Diapason D’Or and a double fivestar review in BBC Music Magazine.

William Howard, piano

William Howard
is established as one of Britain’s leading pianists, enjoying a career that has taken him to over 40 different countries. His performing life consists of solo recitals, concerto performances, guest appearances with chamber ensembles and instrumentalists, and regular touring with the Schubert Ensemble of London, Britain’s leading group for piano and strings and winners of the Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Best Chamber Ensemble. He can be heard on around 40 CDs, released by Chandos, Hyperion, ASV, NMC, Collins Classics, Black Box, Champs Hill and Nimbus.

His solo career has taken him to many of Britain’s most important festivals, including Bath, Brighton and Cheltenham, and he has been artist in residence at several others. He has performed many times in the Wigmore Hall and the South Bank in London and has broadcast regularly for BBC Radio 3. For many years he has been invited to perform and teach at the Dartington International Summer School. His recording of Dvořák Piano Works was selected in the Gramophone Critics’ Choice, and his recording of Fibich’s ‘Moods, Impressions and Souvenirs’ won a Diapason D’Or award in France.

Recent solo engagements have included a performance at the 2015 Bermuda Festival, the premiere of David Matthews's Four Portraits at the Spitalfields Festival in London and performances at the Cheltenham, Deal, Leamington, Petworth and Paxton Festivals, at Kings Place in London, in Brno (Czech Republic), Italy and Oregon, USA. In 2011 he made a recording of Pavel Zemek Novák's extraordinary 75-minute cycle of 24 Preludes and Fugues. A double five-star review in the BBC Music Magazine described the performance as 'superb' and the music 'a real discovery'. His most recent CD was released in May 2014 by Nimbus Records and features music by Schubert, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann and David Matthews.

He is passionate about 19th century piano repertoire, especially Schubert, Chopin, Schumann and Fauré. He also has a strong interest in Czech piano music, and has been particularly acclaimed for his performance of Janáček, for which he received a medal from the Czech Minister of Culture in 1986. Many leading composers of the present day have written for him, including, Sally Beamish, Petr Eben, Piers Hellawell, David Matthews, Pavel Novák, Anthony Powers, Howard Skempton and Judith Weir.

Booklet for Sixteen Love Songs