As a teenager, one of my passions as a pianist was the music of John Ireland, passed on to me by my teacher, Trissie Cox, who introduced me to a piece called Chelsea Reach. Many of Ireland’s pieces had such evocative titles – Soho Afternoons, Amberley Wild Brooks, Autumn Equinox, Sarnia, The Island Spell – and his music created the image of these places in my head far more strongly than a photograph or a map could have done.
There’s nothing superficially Chelsea-like about Chelsea Reach, and it was written in 1917-1920 so it would be a very different Chelsea anyway – or so you’d think. But in fact, the stretch of river in Battersea where I work, immortalized by Whistler & Turner, sometimes seems no different to the way that it must have been 100 or even 200 years ago.
Especially when I see the light at sunset and twilight over the river in spring, the old houseboats and the seagulls waddling through the gold-leaved mud, Ireland’s music feels just right. It was probably a bit old-fashioned when it was written; nostalgic, pensive, idealistic – but I expect there was an old-fashionedness about this part of London even then, and I suspect that’s what Ireland was trying to evoke.
Hi,
I would like to know when was Chelsea Reach first being performed & first recorded & who was the pianist.
Need it to write my thesis, thanks !!
I’m glad you remember our piano teacher, Jonathan. I studied with her in Bournemouth from 1975-1981 and she was a really good influence. She was strict too: I remember back in 1978 when I was learning Mozart Concerto No. 21 for a youth orchestra concert my practising had been so bad that she threatened to withdraw me from the concert and substitute you instead!
As you may know, Trissie Cox died in 1999, aged 91. I went to see her in her nursing home two weeks before her death.
Last time I met you Jonathan was at a party at your place in September 1982 in which I got hopelessly drunk. I remember ringing you up to apologise about it the next day when I’d sobered up … I’m now teaching piano at Bristol & Cardiff Universities.
Best wishes
Ray