Recordings

Rebecca Clarke and William Busch were friends who read each other's music as it was written, and this disc brings their piano music together on a single release. Busch played through Clarke's pieces as she composed them and gave the first performance of her Cortege; the two are natural companions on record, both of them figures of real quality who slipped out of the repertoire for reasons that had little to do with the music.

William Busch first mentions Rebecca Clarke in his diaries on 26 October 1927: “Went to a Gordon Byron concert – Brosa, Rebecca Clarke and John Slater, violin, viola and flute respectively – and heard new and old works – nothing particular. Then to CMC at the Court House. The Brosa Quartet played the String Quartets by Bax, Honegger and Hindemith.” There are 22 more references to Clarke until 1937. Busch performed Clarke's music in August 1932, when he wrote “Broadcast from London Regional – I read Rebecca Clarke's piece from the Manuscript.” They certainly talked a lot about music, and Busch played through her piano pieces as she composed them. On 30 August 1932 William gave the first performance of Clarke's Cortege, then his own ‘Gigue'.

Read more about Rebecca Clarke and available recordings of her music here >