Ilkley Baptist

I often look in charity shops for books or CDs. There's seldom anything I want, but you can't rule out the possibility of a wonderful find if you don't look. Today, in Oxfam in Otley, I hit gold. Along with some piano pieces by Hamish MacCunn, Solfeggietto by CPE, and Brahms' Waltzes, there was Gay but Wistful! How about that?

Not impressed? Gay but Wistful is a piece by Percy Grainger, one of the movements of his In a Nutshell Suite (the others are the wonderfully named, Arrival Platform Humlet, Pastoral, and Gumsuckers March). I didn't know a piano version existed, and certainly haven't seen it for sale. Grainger's music is not easy to find. Here, though, is a charming, halting song in a 'popular London style' such as might be heard at the stage shows of George Grossmith, apparently.

It's typical Grainger. Chords are to be wrenched, certain notes 'to the fore,' others trumpet like or harp like, smooth or detached (assiduously avoiding Italian terms), and there's considerable use to be made of the middle pedal; which I don't have.

The MacCunn is nice; terribly sentimental, but with charm and a genuinely Scottish flavour. The Brahms Waltzes I don't think I've got already - certainly haven't played them in years. Solfeggietto is for Joe to have a go at. Oh, I also found a book version of Feynman's famous physics lectures from Caltech. A pretty good day.