Karen Radcliffe - My Song in October (2024)

A powerful and wide-ranging disc pairing two autumnal works by British composer Peter Seabourne. The composer’s widely praised “Steps” piano cycle series now runs to ten volumes, almost 200 pieces – surely one of the most significant piano works of our time. Volume 8: “My Song in October” is described as “19 album leaves caught by the wind”, each piece inspired in various ways by poems on autumnal leaves. Written following the death of his wife, the artist Marcelle Seabourne in 2020, the emotional diversity is (perhaps surprisingly) wide. The earlier song cycle, “September, Just Septembers – 9 settings of Emily Dickinson”, is a perfect pairing, following a path from summer to winter. Pianist Michael Bell gives an extraordinarily intense and virtuosic account, joined by his late wife, the soprano Karen Radcliffe, in the songs. The disc acts as an “in memoriam” for two gifted women, both tragically “blown away” too young.