Bliss’s Piano Concerto
has deservedly enjoyed much attention
of late with, first, the reissue of
the celebrated Solomon recording (on
APR – a brilliant bravura performance
marred by poor sound), then Noel Mewton-Wood’s
persuasive account on the BMS label
and now this excellent new recording
in modern sound from Naxos. [In passing
I must note another fine recording by
Trevor Barnard with the Philharmonia
Orchestra conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent.(1962).
This recording is now available again
on Divine Art. But EMI reissued it,
as part of a wonderful LP boxed set
of British Piano Concertos that also
included the Ireland, Britten, Rawsthorne
First and Second and the Tippett and
Williamson Concertos. I do hope that
EMI will see fit to reissue this fine
compilation one day.].
Peter Donohoe makes
a welcome return to the recording studios
and delivers a bravura, big-boned performance
of this extrovert concerto conceived
in the Late Romantic tradition. Commissioned
for the 1939 New York World’s Fair,
Bliss’s Piano Concerto was dedicated
to the people of the U.S.A. who Bliss
considered to be the most romantic in
the world. It is suitably strident,
confident and out-going like the citizens
of America’s big cities. We must remember
that Bliss was half-American on his
father’s side. In the opening movement,
the Gershwin influence is plain in Lloyd-Jones’s
and Donohoe’s reading. But Bliss’s music
also has great dramatic quality, and
that sound, associated with Things
to Come, is also present; plus a
tenderness to balance the jazzy, brasher
outbursts. Contrastingly, the second
movement is dreamily romantic and reminiscent
of Bliss’s ballet scores, Lloyd-Jones
whispering a misty ‘will o’ the wisp’
accompaniment to Donohoe’s poetic delicacy.
However there is plenty of dramatic
tension as well as atmosphere. Very
impressive is Donohoe’s virtuosity in
the demanding scintillations of the
finale with its chirpy jazzy peroration
and its debonair, swashbuckling air.
Bliss’s Sonata for
Piano was composed for Noel Mewton-Wood
in 1952. It is again cast in a heroic
and romantic mould requiring robust
bravura playing in the outer movements.
I was aware of some interesting influences
in the opening movements – Ravel and
Poulenc particularly. The central Adagio
sereno is an introspection mainly
gentle but not without passing clouds.
French impressionism
and a certain oriental exoticism add
glitter to the dazzling ebullient opening
section of the Concerto for Two Pianos.
A peppering of American jazz influence
is also discernible. The central episode
is beautifully dreamy, the pianos’ voices
overlapping beguilingly before the final
episode which might suggest harsh urban
sophistication (a mix of New York and
Hong Kong?) and glamour with a pause
for tender reflection.
Unhesitatingly recommended;
for Bliss enthusiasts a must. Fine performances
of sparkling music in very good sound.
Ian Lace
Rob Barnett adds
This disc has already
been thoroughly reviewed by Ian Lace
and John Quinn so I will just address
some more personal reactions without
the factual background.
Competition for the
Piano Concerto comes thick and fast
but the field is crowded exclusively
with historic reissues of which the
unmissable Mewton-Wood disc is the best
of the bunch standing out from the ferociously
edgy sound of the Trevor Barnard version
on The Divine Art and the Solomon version
on Naxos.
Donohoe is not new
to this genre. Previously he has recorded
for Naxos both the Walton Sinfonia Concertante
and the two concertante works by Finzi.
Most recently I have been delighted
all over again by one of the bargains
of the year - EMI Classics’ Gemini double
of Donohoe playing the Tchaikovsky works
for piano and orchestra.
Listen to him thundering
away on the first movement of the piano
concerto. Almost as impressive as the
syncopated cradling of that most gentle
of themes at 09'10 in the first movement
and at 09'56 the majesty of the work
is fully brought out. The sound is clamorously
immediate - not found wanting. Listen
to the audio quality also in the passive
start of the slow movement. In the finale
Donohoe’s sharply defined quick-fire
Prokofiev-like attack recalls the superb
John Browning (heard most recently in
deeply desirable double CD of the five
Prokofiev concertos from John Wilson’s
Idlewild Reissues). It’s becoming yawningly
predictable now but as strong as this
is (and it is the best in modern sound
- compare the 1977 Philip Fowke version
on reissued on Unicorn UKCD if you can
find it) it will have to give way to
the John Ogdon performance (2 August
1966, BBCSO conducted by the composer)
if ever a presentable BBC original tape
can be found.
The other works on
this disc strengthen the virtues of
this already strong disc. The Sonata
was written in 1952 for Mewton-Wood
to celebrate the composer’s delight
in the young Australian’s performances
of the Concerto and of course his recording
of the Concerto (now on British Music Society
Historic BMS101CDH).
It does not have quite the dramatic
savvy of the Concerto although the serene
calm of the adagio sereno is
memorable. The Double Concerto started
out as a concerto for piano, tenor (no
doubt vocalising as in Rout,
Madame Noy and Rhapsody where
the female voice laah-laahs or
uses nonsense syllables) and strings.
It was revised and transformed into
the present form in 1921, 1924, 1929,
1950 and there is a version (recorded)
for the three hands of Phyllis Sellick
and Cyril Smith. Is the original truly
lost ... I rather hope not. This compact
work is extremely attractive if at first
(and at the very end) very brilliantly
indebted to Stravinsky’s Petrushka
and later to Ravel.
This disc is part of
the Naxos British piano concerto series.
It already includes the Rawsthorne pair
(8.555959)
and I certainly hope it will extend
to the John Ireland, Gordon Jacob (x2),
Arnell, York Bowen (x4), Stanley Bate
(x4), Albert Coates, Gaze Cooper (x6),
Reizenstein (x2), Fricker, the six by
Reginald Sacheverell Coke (as old-fashioned
and 19th century ‘retro’ as those by
Frank Merrick), Ruth Gipps, the Phantasy
Concerto by Goossens, Foulds’ Dynamic
Triptych, the Bax Winter Legends
- a smashing work of vivid imagination
and symphonic span and pre-eminent in
this company the Alan Bush Piano Concerto
coupled with Bush’s Africa. Plenty
of territory to cover without duplication.
Let me second John
Quinn’s recommendation for a fresh recording
of the Bliss Violin Concerto. We have
had the Campoli version for years but
the under-recognised Georgiadis who
revived the work with the composer in
the same 1975 BBC studio concert as
an early performance of the Metamorphic
Variations. The conductor was Vernon
Handley.
Mildly curious and still wondering
about this disc? I recommend you get
it. Bliss enthusiast? Well, you’ve already
bought it.
Rob Barnett
see also review
by John Quinn
Royal Scottish National Orchestra/David Lloyd-Jones
