Raymond Clarke

(piano)

25016    Aaron Copland: piano music
25018    Shostakovich and Panufnik Piano Music
25022    Piano Music for Children
24111    Mathias and Pickard Sonatas
23012    Havergal Brian: complete piano works
23018    Shostakovich piano music
23019    Szymanowski piano music

Raymond Clarke was born in Bournemouth, England, in 1963. He held an academic exhibition whilst an undergraduate at Cambridge University, where he obtained his MA. After studying piano with Ryszard Bakst for two years as a postgraduate at the RNCM in Manchester, he made his London South Bank Centre début in March 1988, a recital described by Music and Musicians as ‘truly a historic performance’ and which according to the critic of The Times ‘simply left one in dazed admiration.’

Since then Raymond has been an active recitalist, and has appeared as piano soloist in over forty works with orchestra, ranging from Mozart’s concerti to Scriabin’s Prometheus and Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie. His radio broadcasts have featured repertoire ranging from Beethoven’s Sonata No. 32 in C Minor Op. 111 to Robert Simpson’s Piano Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Two of his commercial CDs have been chosen by Gramophone magazine’s annual ‘Critics’ Choice’ retrospective as being among the best releases on any label.

Raymond teaches piano three days a week at the Music Departments of Bristol University and Cardiff University, and in order to focus on his students’ work there he does not accept any private pupils. He is also editor of The New Shostakovich, a full-length study of the composer published by Pimlico with a foreword by Vladimir Ashkenazy. Despite public performances earlier in his career of such repertoire as the three sonatas by Pierre Boulez and the four sonatas by Michael Tippett this area of the repertoire is not representative of Raymond’s concert programming, and his recital programme for the 2008–09 concert season is as follows:

Tchaikovsky : a selection of pieces from The Seasons, Op. 37a
Prokofiev : Sonata No. 8 in B flat, Op. 84
Rachmaninov : Nine Études-Tableaux, Op. 39 (complete)
Balakirev : Islamey

Full Discography: