Lures for Feeling, Piano Music of Richard Elfyn Jones
Christopher Williams, piano
Lures for Feeling takes its name from Welsh composer Richard Elfyn Jones' Piano Sonata No. 2, which derives from an assertion by one of his philosophical heroes, Alfred North Whitehead, who wrote that the actual world is essentially the outcome of ‘an aesthetic order derived from the immanence of God.’ His book Music and The Numinous aims to clarify this in the light of the composer's own experience as one who, when exercising his creative freedom, has always felt that elements outside oneself have a controlling role in one’s work. In his case, and certainly in that of many tonal composers, it is the obvious demands of the God-given harmonic series that is the rather obvious pointer towards the numinous character of music in its various aspects, whether or not the composer or his/her audience is aware of that. This album also includes his Piano Sonata No. 1, Fantasy Evocations and other recent works, including the heartfelt Threnody for Ukraine. Christopher Williams is well-known through is acclaimed recordings for Grand Piano and Willowhayne Records.