Albert Ketèlbey: An Idyll @PSearPianist

Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

from 'Arpeggio-Melodies' (1911)
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Phillip Sear plays a short piece by the English composer, conductor and pianist Albert Ketèlbey (1875–1959). It comes from a set of mingled exercises and studies in all the keys.
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Born in Birmingham, Ketèlbey studied at the Birmingham and Midland Institute and later moved to London, where his early professional life included work as a pianist, arranger and editor; those years in the capital were decisive in shaping both his technical fluency and his gift for immediate melodic appeal.

His solo piano output is comparatively modest beside his orchestral catalogue, but it is stylistically characteristic: vivid, pictorial, tuneful and neatly proportioned. Several of his best-known orchestral pieces were also issued in piano versions, including 'In a Monastery Garden', 'In a Persian Market', 'In a Chinese Temple Garden' and 'In the Mystic Land of Egypt', which helped circulate his music widely in domestic and salon settings. These pieces belong to the broader repertoire of descriptive miniatures rather than the virtuosic concert repertoire, and their appeal lies in atmosphere, harmonic colour and deftly managed climaxes.

Ketèlbey’s wider output comprised light orchestral music, songs, choral works, organ pieces and music for publishing and recording, and he also had a substantial career in the gramophone industry. His piano music is best understood as part of a commercial yet accomplished craft that helped establish a distinctive British idiom of pictorial salon writing, and his pieces continued to be disseminated through recordings and radio long after their first publication. Although his reputation declined after the Second World War, his works remained influential as models of concise programme writing and effective popular orchestration.

The curiously-named collection from which this piece is organised in three volumes, in progressive order simultaneously of difficulty of key and technique. Though few of the pieces are at all easy, the whole set has been written without chords of more than three notes or octaves, so excellent for players of any standard with small hands.

Thumbnail image created with Picsart ( tinyl.co/4WqE ).
#britishmusic #idyllic
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Played by Phillip Sear
psear.co.uk (Email: piano4@psear.33mail.com
WhatsApp: wa.me/441444483794 ) TikTok: tiktok.com/@pianogems
****See all my latest videos here: tinyurl.com/phillip210 ****

$Harvey Löhr: The Hare and the Hedgehog (Der Hase und der Igel), Op.23 No.18 #18 from Grimm Fairy Tales (Silhouettes), Op.23 (1904) Phillip Sear plays a piece from a set of 25 by the English composer of German descent (Richard) Harvey Löhr (1856–1927). Born in Leicester, Löhr was the youngest son of the German-born organist and conductor George Augustus Löhr (1821–1897), who had settled in England and became a significant figure in the musical life of the East Midlands. The family background provided a distinctly German orientation to Harvey Löhrs early musical formation. He received his advanced training at the Royal Academy of Music, studying under William Henry Holmes, Ebenezer Prout, and Sir Arthur Sullivan. He twice won the prestigious Charles Lucas Medal, in 1877 and 1878, attesting to early distinction as a student composer. He subsequently held the post of organist at St Jamess Church, Marylebone, a position that sustained his connection to Londons musical life throughout his professional career. Löhr died in Hastings, and his manuscripts are preserved at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Löhrs piano music occupies a modest but characteristic corner of the late-Victorian keyboard repertoire, oriented towards the lyric miniature and the genre piece rather than the large-scale sonata. A Shakespeare Cycle, Op.19 (1898), a set of twelve pieces published by Schott & Co., represents his most ambitious contribution to the genre, drawing on literary imagery in a manner consistent with the characteristic piece tradition of the period. Other collections include Garden Idylls, Op.25 (1910), an album of twelve lyric pieces, and When We Were Children, Op.26 (1913), six character pieces also issued by Schott, suggesting a secondary market in pedagogical and domestic salon repertoire. Lighter pieces such as Ariel (1889) and Scenes from Fairyland, Op.21 (1901) reinforce an imaginative, illustrative approach to keyboard writing. The piano music forms only a fraction of Löhrs considerable catalogue, which includes five symphonies, two piano concertos, two string quartets, a piano quintet, a piano quartet (Op.15), and a piano trio (Op.22), alongside the operas A Border Raid (1883) and Kenilworth (1906). His choral output embraces the oratorio The Queen of Sheba, Op.20 (1900) and several anthems and part-songs, complemented by a large body of solo song. Though Löhr attracted little sustained critical attention in the twentieth century, his enduring legacy is institutional: a scholarship bearing his name was established at the Royal Academy of Music for British-born composers between the ages of fourteen and twenty-four, a fund that has supported subsequent generations of student composers, among them Craig Armstrong.” (Perplexity AI, 21 June 2026). “The Hare and the Hedgehog” (Der Hase und der Igel, KHM 187) is a Low Saxon fable published by the Brothers Grimm in the fifth edition of their collection in 1843. A proud hare mocks a hedgehog for his short, crooked legs, so the offended hedgehog challenges him to a race across the heath near Buxtehude, wagering a gold coin and a bottle of brandy. The hedgehog secretly arranges for his wife, who closely resembles him, to stand at the far end of the furrow and shout, “I am already here!” whenever the hare reaches it. Convinced that he has been beaten, the hare insists on racing again and again, while the hedgehog and his wife repeat the trick until the exhausted hare collapses and dies after seventy-four runs. The tale’s stated moral warns that nobody, however superior he may consider himself, should mock someone he regards as beneath him, even if that person is only a hedgehog; its darker comedy lies in the hare’s refusal to accept defeat until his pride destroys him. (Perplexity AI, 15 August 2026). Thumbnail image created with Picsart ( https://tinyl.co/4WqE ). #britishmusic #brothersgrimm Played by Phillip Sear http://www.psear.co.uk (Email: piano4@psear.33mail.com WhatsApp: http://wa.me/441444483794 ) TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pianogems ****See all my latest videos here: https://tinyurl.com/phillip210 ****$

Gaston Salvayre: Petit soldat français! (Little French soldier)

Henry Weyts: À toute volée (At full tilt), Op.651

Franz Krenn: Rondino (über ein Motiv aus Flotows Oper „Die Matrosen“)

$Harvey Löhr: Hansel and Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), Op.23 No.14 #14 from Grimm Fairy Tales (Silhouettes), Op.23 (1904) Phillip Sear plays a piece from a set of 25 by the English composer of German descent (Richard) Harvey Löhr (1856–1927). Born in Leicester, Löhr was the youngest son of the German-born organist and conductor George Augustus Löhr (1821–1897), who had settled in England and became a significant figure in the musical life of the East Midlands. The family background provided a distinctly German orientation to Harvey Löhrs early musical formation. He received his advanced training at the Royal Academy of Music, studying under William Henry Holmes, Ebenezer Prout, and Sir Arthur Sullivan. He twice won the prestigious Charles Lucas Medal, in 1877 and 1878, attesting to early distinction as a student composer. He subsequently held the post of organist at St Jamess Church, Marylebone, a position that sustained his connection to Londons musical life throughout his professional career. Löhr died in Hastings, and his manuscripts are preserved at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Löhrs piano music occupies a modest but characteristic corner of the late-Victorian keyboard repertoire, oriented towards the lyric miniature and the genre piece rather than the large-scale sonata. A Shakespeare Cycle, Op.19 (1898), a set of twelve pieces published by Schott & Co., represents his most ambitious contribution to the genre, drawing on literary imagery in a manner consistent with the characteristic piece tradition of the period. Other collections include Garden Idylls, Op.25 (1910), an album of twelve lyric pieces, and When We Were Children, Op.26 (1913), six character pieces also issued by Schott, suggesting a secondary market in pedagogical and domestic salon repertoire. Lighter pieces such as Ariel (1889) and Scenes from Fairyland, Op.21 (1901) reinforce an imaginative, illustrative approach to keyboard writing. The piano music forms only a fraction of Löhrs considerable catalogue, which includes five symphonies, two piano concertos, two string quartets, a piano quintet, a piano quartet (Op.15), and a piano trio (Op.22), alongside the operas A Border Raid (1883) and Kenilworth (1906). His choral output embraces the oratorio The Queen of Sheba, Op.20 (1900) and several anthems and part-songs, complemented by a large body of solo song. Though Löhr attracted little sustained critical attention in the twentieth century, his enduring legacy is institutional: a scholarship bearing his name was established at the Royal Academy of Music for British-born composers between the ages of fourteen and twenty-four, a fund that has supported subsequent generations of student composers, among them Craig Armstrong.” (Perplexity AI, 21 June 2026). Hänsel und Gretel (Hansel and Gretel, KHM 15) is one of the best-known tales collected by the Brothers Grimm and first published in 1812. During a time of famine, a poor woodcutter and his wife abandon their children in the forest, but clever Hansel attempts to mark their path home with white pebbles and later with breadcrumbs, which birds eat. Lost and starving, the children discover a tempting house made of bread, cake, and sugar, only to find that it belongs to a cannibalistic witch who imprisons Hansel and intends to fatten him before eating him. Gretel outwits the witch by pretending not to understand how to climb into the oven, then pushes her inside and shuts the door, killing her; the children discover the witch’s treasure and escape. After crossing a stretch of water with the help of a white duck, they eventually find their way home, where the treasure ends their poverty. The tale combines the grim realities of hunger, abandonment, and predatory danger with a triumphant celebration of the children’s courage, resourcefulness, and mutual loyalty. (Perplexity AI, 15 August 2026). This piece provides a pleasant alternative to the much better-known music of Humperdincks opera of the same name. Thumbnail image created with Picsart ( https://tinyl.co/4WqE ). #britishmusic #brothersgrimm #hanselandgretel #hänselundgretel Played by Phillip Sear http://www.psear.co.uk (Email: piano4@psear.33mail.com WhatsApp: http://wa.me/441444483794 ) TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@pianogems ****See all my latest videos here: https://tinyurl.com/phillip210 ****$