Ronald Stevenson

about

Ronald Stevenson (born March 6, 1928 in Blackburn, Lancashire) is a British composer, pianist, and writer about music. The son of a Scottish father and English mother, Stevenson studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music (now incorporated in the Royal Northern College of Music), studying composition with Richard Hall and piano with Iso Ellinson, graduating with distinction in 1948. He moved to Scotland in the mid-1950s. As author and performer he was instrumental in reviving the works of Ferruccio Busoni, and corresponded with Percy Grainger. Among his many compositions, the largest (in terms of duration) and most famous is his Passacaglia on DSCH for solo piano, written between 1960 and 1962, based on a 13-note ground bass derived from the musical motif D, E-flat, C, B: the German transliteration of Dmitri Shostakovich's initials ("D. Sch."). (Shostakovich used these four notes as a musical 'signature', for example in his Eighth String Quartet). Stevenson's work takes more than an hour and a quarter to perform and may be the longest unbroken single movement composed for piano, though the first movement of Sorabji's Fourth Piano Symphony exceeds it by over 10 minutes. Stevenson's other works include two piano concertos, the second of which was first performed at a Prom in 1972, a violin concerto commissioned by Yehudi Menuhin, and a cello concerto in memoriam Jacqueline du Pré. He has also written several chamber works including a String Quartet and Piano Quartet, nu

top songs

albums

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Ronald Stevenson: Piano Music, Vol. 4

Celtic Celtic Dreams (Haunting Songs of Love and Longing)

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Passacaglia on DSCH/Pars Prima/Waltz in rondo-form

STEVENSON: Passacaglia on DSCH

Stevenson: Piano Music, Vol. 3

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Darknesse Visible

Stevenson: Piano Music

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Passacaglia on D.S.C.H.

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On DSCH

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Ronald Stevenson: Piano Music, Vol. 6

Stevenson: Piano Music, Vol. 1

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Ronald Stevenson: A Chinese Folk-Song Suite

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