Clara SCHUMANN (1819-1896)
Piano Concerto in A Minor [20:50]
Ferdinand HILLER (1811-1885)
Konzertstück, Op. 113 [20:51]
Henri HERZ (1803-1888)
Rondo de concert, Op. 27 [11:25]
Friedrich KALKBRENNER (1785-1849
Le rêve, Op. 113 [10:43]
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra/Howard Shelley (piano)
rec. 2018, Federation Concert Hall, Hobart, Australia
The Romantic Piano Concerto Volume 78
HYPERION CDA68240 [63:54]
Hyperion’s wonderful series of discs celebrating The Romantic Piano
Concerto goes from strength to strength with volume 78 offering the Concerto
by Clara Schumann, along with works by three composers who have all featured
elsewhere in the series, Ferdinand Hiller, Henri Herz and Friedrich Kalkbrenner
If you forget the Konzertsatz in F minor, which has been completed by
Belgian musicologist and pianist Jozef de Beenhouwer in the mid 1990’s,
the Piano Concerto in A Minor represents Clara Schumann’s only extant
orchestral work. Clara began to write the Concerto in 1833 when she was
only fourteen, yet the technical challenges posed by the work are more
than ambitious, it was composed backwards as it where, with the final
movement, the most demanding of the three linked movements, coming first
and originally intended as a single movement Konzertsatz. Clara’s
father, the influential musician and teacher Friedrich Wieck, asked one
of his students, Robert Schumann, to help Clara with the orchestration
of the piece, and the rest is history. The Concerto was premiered in November
1835 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus under Felix Mendelssohn with the young
Clara as soloist. The performance of Howard Shelley and the Tasmanian
Symphony orchestra is first rate and is more compelling than either of
my other recordings, Angela Cheng (KIC-CD 7169) and Veronica Jochum (TUDOR788),
although Jochum’s has the best couplings being a disc solely dedicated
to the music of Clara Schumann and which contains the Piano Trio and the
Three Romances for Violin and Piano. I particularly like the central slow
movement with its inclusion of a solo cell.
As already mentioned, the remaining three pieces on this disc are by composers
already featured in the series. With Ferdinand Hiller’s three piano
concertos featuring on volume 45 (CDA67655) which was Gramophone Editors
Choice back in June 2008, and which I have enjoyed in the past. Here his
Konzertstück, which in effect is another concerto, with its three distinct
sections, like the Clara Schumann, being played without a break. This
is a work that fits its inclusion in the charming slow central section
being very romantic in character. This is followed by the Rondo de concert
by Henri Herz, who has featured on three volumes in this series, volumes
35 (CDA67465), 40 (CDA67537 and 66 (CDA68100), none of which I know, but
what I have heard here in this beguiling piece makes me want to invest
in all three discs. The final composer represented on this disc is Friedrich
Kalkbrenner features on volumes 41 (CDA67535) and 56 (CDA67843), the second
of which I have. Here ‘Le rêve’ begins with a broad sweep
of the strings before the dramatic entry of the piano, with the dramatic
nature of the piece belying the title of the piece.
For me the Clara Schumann is the stand-out piece here, and I am surprised
it has taken until volume 78 for it to be included in the series, but
the three additional pieces are no mere makeweights. The Tasmanian Symphony
Orchestra with their conductor and soloist Howard Shelley, continue here
in the same vein as they do in the Hiller and Kalkbrenner discs that I
have, with excellent and committed plying by soloist and orchestra. Indeed,
they are involved in all of six volumes mentioned above, and I can only
imagine that their performances are as compelling there as they are here
and in the volumes I have. As always, the Hyperion sound is excellent
as are the booklet notes by Jeremy Nicholas, making this a very worthy
addition to this wonderful series of Romantic Piano Concerto recordings.
Stuart Sillitoe
