MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger


Buy through MusicWeb for £11.00 postage paid World Wide. Try it on Sale or Return
You may prefer to pay by Sterling cheque or Euro notes to avoid PayPal. Contact for details

Musicweb Purchase button

Alun HODDINOTT (b.1929)
Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra Op.3 ** (1950) [14:21]
Harp Concerto Op. 11 *** (1957; rev. 1970) [17:41]
Piano Concerto No. 1 Op. 19 † (1960) [19:06]
Piano Concerto No. 2 Op. 21 †† (1960; rev. 1969) [16:15]
* Philharmonia Orchestra/Sir Charles Groves
** Gervase de Peyer (clarinet)
*** Osian Ellis (harp)
London Symphony Orchestra/David Atherton
† Philip Fowke (piano)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Barry Wordsworth
††Martin Jones (piano)
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Andrew Davis
rec. January 1971, Kingsway Hall (harp, clarinet); 15 January 1996, Walthamstow Assembly Hall (concerto 1); March 1973, Kingsway Hall (concerto 2). ADD (harp, clarinet, concerto 2)
Clarinet and Harp concertos first issued on LP as Decca SXL 6513; Piano Concerto 1: LP Decca SXL 6606.
LYRITA SRCD.330 [67:28]




This disc nicely complements the Hoddinott symphonies 2, 3 and 5 recorded by Lyrita.

Fascinating to hear these works from the 1950s even if two of them were revised in 1969-70. The three movement op. 3 Clarinet Concerto is played by the liquid-toned de Peyer who premiered it at the Cheltenham Festival. The springy and flighty zest of the outer movements recalls Berkeley at one moment and Rawsthorne the next. It has a drier disposition than the contemporary Finzi concerto. The 1957 Harp Concerto is played by Osian Ellis who gave the premiere again at the Cheltenham Festival in 1958. Seven years after the Clarinet Concerto Hoddinott had found his voice. It is an intriguing voice, often delicate with percussion decoration and address, with a chilly dissonant edge to motifs and melodies and an atmospheric rather than overtly emotional character. The titles of the movements hint at the approach: Dialogue, Improvisation and Fantasy and all are in keeping with the soul of the harp.

The Piano Concerto No. 1 is scored for an orchestra of woodwind and brass with timps, percussion and celesta. It's the only digital recording here. The concerto was premiered in London by Valerie Tryon - who also championed the Second - in the year of composition. Across its four movements it is stern and touched with a sense of nightmare. The sauntering piano line and threatening air again seems to look to Rawsthorne but also to a work which presumably Hoddinott would not have known: Bridge's Phantasm. There is hint of cool jazziness and even a casual confidence in the finale. The compact Second Piano Concerto reverts to three movements and a more 'normal' orchestra. This work is intensely expressive with a deeply impressive Adagio set between the meditative and capricious Moderato and a darkly businesslike final Allegro.

Four short concertos by the Welsh composer Alun Hoddinott. Everything here is well worth hearing but the Second Concerto stands out in this company.

Rob Barnett

see also review by Brian Wilson

Also Available

SRCD.331 Alun Hoddinott Symphonies Nos. 2, 3, 5
SRCD.332 Alun Hoddinott Dives & Lazarus

The Lyrita Catalogue



 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 

Return to Review Index