Hyperion can be guaranteed to disinter rare, previously unrecorded
material for their various series. It has done so again here with
three previously disc-free works in the volume in their Romantic
Piano Concerto series. Julius Benedict is the focus, one of the
German-born colossi of Victorian Britain.
The
student of Hummel knew how to construct a strong, powerfully
argued concerto, as he shows in both these examples. In the
case of the C minor the compositional axis is, I suppose,
late Mozart-to-Mendelssohn but with more of the latter. The
piano enters after the briefest of orchestral introductions
and soon unveils a delightful second subject. The writing
is fluent and fluid, virtuosic in places, and strives toward
stormy petrel buffeting. A strong contrast comes via the warmly
hued slow movement, a romantic reverie, really, in which an
allegro section offers contrastive panache before we return
to the refined allure of the opening. The finale is perhaps
the most outstanding movement for its sheer catchiness, and
its sprightly, striking avuncularity. True, we get the dreaded
fugal feint but there’s plenty of verve and drama here and
the fugal section is, ultimately, neither academic nor over-balancing.
The
E flat major concerto was premiered by Arabella Goddard in
full in 1867 - it had a long gestation but was clearly written
much earlier. There’s a nice, veiled warmth about it though
it’s cast in a rather more conventional mien than the companion
concerto. There’s plenty of fulsome filigree and a decided
whiff of his old teacher Hummel’s elegant eloquence too. There’s
a surface superficial resemblance to Chopin, or possibly Field,
from time to time in the slow movement, but in the main the
temperature remains cool and precise. The finale is fine –
terpsichorean, lightly orchestrated, substantial, digitally
testing.
The
pendant is the Concertstück in E minor by the less well known
of the Macfarren brothers, Walter. This was composed and premiered
in 1881 and it’s decidedly Mendelssohnian in orientation,
much more so in fact that Benedict. But it too is artfully
constructed, packs in a lot of variety and contrast, and certainly
doesn’t outstay its relatively brief welcome.
Howard
Shelley’s playing and directing is terrific and the orchestra
plays with requisite bravura and sensitivity. First class
recorded sound and notes as well. Admirers of the genre have
no cause to doubt the commitment of all involved.
Jonathan Woolf
see also Review
by Rob Barnett
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra/Howard Shelley (piano/conductor)
