What if Jane Austen Characters Went to a Piano Concert?
While sorting through dozens of CDs on a bleak November evening in 2020, I stumbled upon an album of my own from 1996: Piano Classics from the World of Jane Austen.
I hadn’t listened to it in years and suddenly wanted to, so I called a time-out and spent the next seventy-two minutes hearing myself play while juggling my own liner notes, a mug of hot tea, and an amorous black cat named Sooty.
Immediately afterwards, I decided to retitle, repackage, and reissue the album in a way that reflects my current, mid-life aesthetic preferences and literary perspectives.
The result is A Piano Recital from the World of Jane Austen, now cast as a documentary recording of a hypothetical concert from 1816, given by three real pianists (Google them and see for yourselves!) and attended by many of the musically inclined men and women in Jane Austen’s novels—perhaps no less real than the pianists, their failure to take physical form notwithstanding.
The liner notes (and notes to the notes, and notes to the notes to the notes—all of which may be found online) are wholly new, as is the eight-panel packaging, which was an enjoyable collaboration with my brother-in-law Paul, who understands my tastes perfectly and shares many of them himself.
Given the urgency I felt to repackage, retitle, and rewrite everything for this reissue, the fact that I’m still satisfied with my original musical interpretation and performance is perhaps bizarre; but in response to any real or hypothetical accusations of not having grown pianistically or artistically over the past twenty-five years (and like every insecure musician, I tend to hurl such accusations at myself on a regular basis), I can only shrug and say I still stand by every note. The recording is in every way unchanged.
Information about the composers and pieces featured on this album, Jane Austen’s involvement with music, the musical scene in Regency England, and more will be available soon.
Sample Track 1 from the CD:
That’s me, in Regency attire during the 1996 CD cover photo shoot by my friend Rick Price. My mom, Georgene Bond, made my gown!
Now Available for Purchase
The newly re-released audio CD features all 72 minutes of solo piano music from this mostly plausible, if not entirely likely, concert. It can be purchased through my beloved local bookstore, The King’s English Bookshop.