Bebbington enhances his reputation in music by two gifted, jazz-loving Brits DITORS HOICE G :GRAMOPHONE j MAGAVIE Arnold • Lambert

Elegy. Piano Sonata. Suite in Three Movements Somm New Horizons ® SOMMCD062 (77' • DDD)

Mark Bebbington's 85th-birthday tribute to the late Sir Malcolm Arnold starts with his first substantial piano composition, the Piano Sonata in

B minor from 1942. After a concise opening movement, a wistful Andante con moteleads without a break into the Alla marcia finale, whose element of ironic burlesque suggests an acquaintance with Prokofiev and Shostakovich. The Piano Pieces, completed the following year, already possess that bittersweet tang characteristic of the composer. However, the meatiest Arnold offering here is the absorbing 1944 Variations on a Ukrainian Folksong. Comparison with Benjamin Frith (whose admirable complete 1994 survey is now available again on Vol 3 of Decca's Arnold Edition) finds Bebbington the more intrepidly communicative and unruffled advocate. He also benefits from a superbly rounded, firmly focused sound-picture (this is the first solo recital to be recorded in Birmingham's Symphony Hall).

Bebbington proves equally at home in the music of Constant Lambert. His interpretation of the magnificent 1929 Sonata that bridges the gap between The Rio Grande (1927) and the Piano Concerto (1930-31) has all the stylish aplomb, improvisatory freedom and infectious swagger one could 'Malcolm Arnold's early

Piano Pieces already possess that bittersweet tang hurtles menacingly towards its characteristic of the composer' grim apotheosis, after which the skies darken further still for the inconsolable Elegy that Lambert wrote in 1938.1'd not previously encountered the three-movement Suite from 1925 — it's full of daring, ear-tickling invention (sample the hallucinatory opening Andante) and a striking achievement for someone barely out of their teens. The sweetly touching Elegiac Blues of 1927 (written within days of the news of the early death of singer Florence Mills) rounds off another high-class collection from this intelligent and tasteful performer. Andrew Achenbach INTERVIEW Mark Bebbington

Lambert and Arnold were both mavericks. They both stood outside the British establishment and were in a sense never recognised by it. Both pushed life and art to excess - that's a common thread with both of them.

Arnold's Piano Sonata is a heady mix of so many styles. There's a definite taste of neo-classical Stravinsky in the first movement, a rather melancholic slow movement, and the finale is definitely Arnold in

St Trinian's mode. In a sense even Shostakovich at his wildest never came up with anything as outrageous as that in the finale. Somehow or other it works, although I can see how such a heady stylistic mix caused problems, particularly for the British musical establishment, when a work like that first appeared. But now, with something of a historical distance, we can look at that with some kind of pleasure.

The Ukrainian Variations are an English composer's answer to the kind of world that Shostakovich and Prokofiev were inhabiting at that time. It's a big play - and a work that really deserves a place in the repertory. I had met Arnold for his 80th birthday and played the Variations for him: he was utterly charming and generous, so I thought it would be nice to record them for his 85th - but alas, it was not to be.

The Lambert Sonata is a monumental work. It starts with a nod to Gershwin and by the time you've reached the finale you're at times in the world of Messiaen - these monolithic slabs of sound that transport us right towards the sound world at the end of the 20th century. It's a really forward-looking piece, and a much neglected one - it's a pivotal work in the British repertoire of the last century.

The Suite in Three Movements is a premiere recording. It's a fascinating early work: to me, it like a ballet score for piano. Interview by David Threasher