Contemporary Works for Euphonium and Piano
David Childs; Christopher Williams
Naxos Recordings: 8.574684

Still Glides the Stream sees David Childs strip bare the fodder of accumulated virtuosic writing for the euphonium to bring the instrument back to its elemental certainties.

Released in late 2025, clarity and beauty is balanced without recourse to artifice or needless argument; his astonishing technique subservient to a deeply informed musicality further illuminated by the superb accompaniment of pianist Christopher Williams.  

Hot breath

That essence permeates throughout; the opening ‘Skunk’  by Simon Parkin, hitting its inventive groove with a snorting character of mischievous complexity.

The equally imaginative ‘Romp!’  by Christopher Williams, inspired by the ‘Game of Thrones’ writing of author George R.R. Martin, is a scherzo prison escape, the hot breath of a chasing dragon felt on the back of the neck.

Dedicated expressionism 

The centrepiece is Philip Wilby’s sonata title track; a poetic family portrait, underpinned by varied forms of dedicated expressionism that reflect on the passing of time and people with a sense of enriching, regenerative life force, meaningful and lasting.  An energised opening is followed by short, brilliant scherzo, a cameo trio of amalgams and a loving, memoriam close.  

Deeper feelings of belonging in Cait Nishimura’s ‘Hiraeth’, draw the listener into a landscape of yearning, elusive melancholy.  

Elena Roussanova’s ‘Song of the Sea’  is an elegiac gem of simple serenity that ebbs on the tide, the soloist a lone figure undulating to the rhythm of the ocean.  Deeper feelings of belonging in Cait Nishimura’s ‘Hiraeth’,  (originally written for baritone saxophone, but beautifully transcribed by the composer for the euphonium) draw the listener into a landscape of yearning, elusive melancholy.  

Finesse

The elegant minimalism of Ludovico Einaudi’s ‘Due Tramonti’  displays the Italian's ambient talent for ubiquitous, haunting familiarity.  Elsewhere, familiar structures, subtly tweaked are to be found in ‘Sonatina for Euphonium and Piano’,  Rodney Newton’s homage to classical form shaped by an informed compositional hand and played with finesse by both performers – a lyrical ‘Pavane’  followed by a lilting ‘Sarabande’  and sprightly ‘Gigue Irlandaise’. 

The deepest feelings of introspection though are conveyed with Errollyn Wallen’s ‘Peace on Earth’, tellingly expressed by the soloist with an emotive power of serene bleakness. 

It sits in balance to the continuous arc of modernist development of Anthony Ritchie’s ‘Triptych’,  the most virtuosic work of the release, although one, even with its varied mix of touchstones, never loses connection to its source material in its demanding explorations. 

The deepest feelings of introspection though are conveyed with Errollyn Wallen’s ‘Peace on Earth’,  tellingly expressed by the soloist with an emotive power of serene bleakness. 

Iwan Fox 

To purchase:
https://www.prestomusic.com/classical/products/9788674--still-glides-the-stream

Play list:

1. Skunk (Simon Parkin)
2. Due Tramonti (Ludovico Einaudi)

3-6. Still Glides the Stream (Philip Wilby)
i. With passionate energy
ii. Scherzo Brillante
iii. Prelude, Disputation and Cadenza
iv. Still glides the stream, and shall forever glide…

7. Hiraeth (Cait Nishimura)
8. Romp! (Christopher Williams) 
       
9-11. Sonatina for Euphonium and Piano (Rodney Newton)
i. Pavane: Moderato con moto
ii. Sarabande (in memoriam Morfydd Myfanwy Childs): Lento
iii. Gigue Irlandaise: Allegro spiritoso

12. Song of the Sea (Elena Roussanova)
13. Triptych Op. 162 (Anthony Ritchie)
14. Peace on Earth (Errollyn Wallen)