The last few years have seen the appearance of Roy’s game-changer of a critical edition of Chopin’s Etudes from Peters Edition (see the Editions page), with Op. 25 due out to complete the set in 2025. This edition incorporates dozens of hitherto unpublished corrections and authentic variants by the composer.
Roy’s and Emily Kilpatrick’s new critical Peters edition of Fauré’s Complete Songs completed itself in 2022, with the appearance of the final Volume 4. Volume 1 contains Fauré’s first 34 songs, covering his most formative years, 1861–1883, a few of them published for the first time in Fauré’s original manuscript keys. Volume 3, containing all Fauré’s 17 settings of Verlaine, appeared in 2015, with a launch concert at London’s King’s Place Recital Hall on 21 September (with Roy and Emily playing for star singers Anna Sideris and Bradley Smith). Volumes 2 and 4 complete the collection, all four volumes printed in high- and medium-voice editions. Volume 1 received a ‘Best Edition 2015’ award at the Frankfurt Musikmesse in April 2015. A follow-up selection fron the series, the 2024 Fauré Centenary Songbook, gained the 2024 Presto Music Award for new editions.
The series also comprises the first publication of Fauré’s complete Vocalises with piano, a new and superb vocal primer based on Fauré’s lifetime of working with singers, and reflecting his radical overhaul of vocal training at the Paris Conservatoire between 1905 and 1920.
The editions have been complemented by CDs with two marvellous and cherished singers, bass Jared Schwartz and tenor Tony Boutté accompanied by Roy and Emily, showcasing a multitude of discoveries and corrections from the new Peters edition. It made us especially delighted to put the new editions to such immediate practical use, as Roy has done over the years with recordings of Debussy, Chabrier and Fauré piano and chamber music from his editions.
In other respects the last few years have included various tours to the Antipodes and North America. French repertoire looming large as always, Schubert’s last sonatas have also had a high profile (the C minor Sonata at St Andrews in 2014 and at a Schola Cantorum recital in Paris in July 2015, and the B-flat Sonata at York’s Jack Lyons Hall in January 2o15). A good few of Roy’s performances, lecture-recitals or interviews can be heard and viewed on YouTube, including Debussy’s En blanc et noir (from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2013, with Aaron Shorr), Bartók’s Sonata for 2 pianos and percussion (from Brisbane, also in 2013), Roy’s Ravelian version of Happy Birthday to Ravel, live on BBC Radio 3 as part of the 2014 Ravel birthday celebrations, and a 2024 recital from the beautiful new Laidlaw Music Centre at University of St Andrews.