Toccata

Description

Noel Rawsthorne, who was the first British organist to play in the USSR, met Mushel while on tour and was dismayed to find the young composer prohibited by the Soviet authorities from performing his own compositions. Rawsthorne took this piece back to Britain and edited it for publication. It is very much in the spirit and style of a Ukrainian Cossack dance; the feel is improvisatory, with contrasting sections allowing different dancers to express themselves, before typically culminating in a fast and furious finish.