This is music of moderation, well played and well recorded. None of the composers has a sufficiently strong personality to capture the limelight for long but there is enjoyment to be had from these works. The Alwyn supplements his recorded chamber music (mostly to be found on Chandos) and Ogdon in some other piano works (also Chandos); the Ferguson, first recorded by Myra Hess for HMV (3/45—nla), was for long his only work in circulation but now the advocacy of Richard Hickox has changed that; and the Leighton Studies are included on Eric Parkin's CD (ABCD (CD) ABA402-2, 3/89). Percy Turnbull is the novelty—the notes with the cassette don't give his dates but he studied at the Royal College of Music with Holst, Vaughan Williams and especially Ireland. The latter's influence shows through in the Sonatina published in 1948, which is the least interesting piece on the cassette.
By comparison with Turnbull, Leighton, who had such prodigious natural musicianship, seems clearly focused. But the fluency, drawn effortlessly from various sources in idiomatic piano style, is almost too much. One becomes aware that this may be music more rewarding to play than to listen to. The Ferguson Bagatelles are taut miniatures from 1944, ingeniously based on notes provided by his friend and fellow composer Arnold van Wyk. The second one has snatches of Rawsthorne (via late Liszt?) and the third has echoes of Elgar. The drama is lost in Dyson's performance of No. 4 and there's not quite enough delicacy in the last one. Otherwise he plays persuasively, even in the pleasantly discursive Alwyn.'