Rick Wakeman - Piano Odyssey
Wakeman’s album is sets for a 29 November release with Sony Classical
Keyboard legend Rick Wakeman is set to celebrate the upcoming festive seasons with the release of a brand-new album, Christmas Portraits. Wakeman has had a hugely successful career, having collaborated with the likes of David Bowie and Black Sabbath during his career.
This holiday album celebrates Wakeman’s favourite time of the year as he performs familiar and favourite festive music, arranged for solo piano.
Silent Night, The First Noel, We Three Kings, O Little Town Of Bethlehem and Deck The Halls With Boughs Of Holly will all be included.
Wakeman graced the cover of Pianist issue 95, which you can download here.
A former student and Fellow of the Royal College of Music, Wakeman has covered much musical ground during his wide-ranging career and here with ‘Christmas Portraits’, he brings his classic Wakeman twist to traditional Christmas favourites, arranging some evergreens into fresh new medleys.
Rick Wakeman comments: “Christmas is my absolute favourite time of the year. I love every aspect of it, especially traditional Christmas music and songs which have wonderful simplistic melodies that are perfect for adaptation to produce variations on the piano. That is something I love to do and that is exactly what this album is”.
Following his current solo tour of the USA, Rick Wakeman will be performing live in December around the UK on his 'Grumpy Old Christmas Tour', which will feature a selection of music from the brand-new 'Christmas Portraits' album.
Photo credit: Bolder Creative