The Piano Music (3 CD set)

I first heard the name of John Ireland from my father, who knew some of his songs and had broadcast Twilight Night with the choral group he conducted in Swansea before the War. At that time a great family friend was the composer Percy Turnbull and it was he who later introduced me to Ireland's piano music, which I immediately fell in love with. Percy had been with Ireland in his beloved Channel Islands in 1940 - he could imitate his distinctively querulous voice and regaled us with many stories. Ireland had wanted to settle on Guernsey but was forced to leave at 24 hours' notice that June owing to the imminence of the German invasion. He, John Longmire and Turnbull had managed to get on one of the last boats and endured a hazardous journey to Weymouth, where the composer arrived in a highly nervous state, the unfinished manuscript of Sarnia among his few possessions. Percy told me that Longmire went to the Captain and said of Ireland, "he's mad, you know", thereby enabling the composer to leave the boat ahead of the normal disembarkation procedures ...
Alan Rowlands