John Ireland’s piano music, some of the most appealing British piano music of the twentieth century, reflects the composer’s many interests: his love of literature, his interest in paganism and Celtic mysticism, as well as the bitter-sweet regret of the passing of love. This recording includes Ireland’s Piano Sonata, whose third movement is associated with Chanctonbury Ring on the Sussex South Downs, and the four Preludes, the third of which, The Holy Boy, written on Christmas Day 1913, is one of Ireland’s most popular and touching melodies.