Hyperion Records | The Romantic Piano Concerto, Vol. 13

Click album cover image to view the sleeve notes

CDA66877

Buy? £13.99

Recording details: January 1996
Govan Town Hall, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Produced by Andrew Keener
Release date: August 1996
Total duration: 65 minutes 29 seconds
Available for download on iTunes: Yes

View sleeve notes/artwork

'Stephen Coombs is on scintillating form throughout, turning even the most standardised of virtuoso gestures into remarkable utterances' (Piano International)

'As in his four-disc set of Glazunov's complete solo piano music, Stephen Coombs is poetic and powerful. The rare Goedicke concertante makes a charming filler' (The Guardian)

'Sparkling performances ... his playing is by turns gloriously extrovert and affectionately intimate ... superbly recorded orchestral colours' (BBC Music Magazine)

The Romantic Piano Concerto, Vol. 13 – Glazunov & Goedicke

Stephen Coombs (piano), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Martyn Brabbins (conductor)

		Piano Concerto No 1 in F minor, Op 92 Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936)
1		Movement 1: Allegro moderato [13:15]
2		Movement 2 (Tema con variazioni) Part 01: Tema. Andante tranquillo [1:31]
3		Movement 2 (Tema con variazioni) Part 02: Variation 1 [1:17]
4		Movement 2 (Tema con variazioni) Part 03: Variation 2 'Chromatica'. Andantino [1:05]
5		Movement 2 (Tema con variazioni) Part 04: Variation 3 'Eroica'. Allegro moderato [1:05]
6		Movement 2 (Tema con variazioni) Part 05: Variation 4 'Lyrica'. Adagio [3:07]
7		Movement 2 (Tema con variazioni) Part 06: Variation 5 'Intermezzo'. Allegro [0:52]
8		Movement 2 (Tema con variazioni) Part 07: Variation 6 'Quasi una fantasia'. Lento [2:04]
9		Movement 2 (Tema con variazioni) Part 08: Variation 7 'Mazurka'. Allegretto [1:35]
10		Movement 2 (Tema con variazioni) Part 09: Variation 8 'Scherzo'. Allegro ma non troppo [1:47]
11		Movement 2 (Tema con variazioni) Part 10: Variation 9 'Finale'. Allegro moderato [3:40]
		Piano Concerto No 2 in B major, Op 100 Alexander Glazunov (1865-1936)
12		Movement 1: Andante sostenuto – Allegro – Più moderato [6:39]
13		Movement 2: Andante – Moderato tranquillo [3:13]
14		Movement 3: Allegro – Allegretto scherzando – Allegro moderato – Con moto [10:29]
15		Concertstück in D major, Op 11 [13:50] Alexander Goedicke (1877-1957)

The disc is the thirteenth volume in the famous Hyperion 'Romantic Piano Concerto' series; it also follows on from Stephen Coombs's four-volume set of Glazunov's music for solo piano (CDH55221, 222, 223, 224), meaning that Coombs has now recorded all of Glazunov's music for piano soloist.

The two piano concertos date from relatively late in the composer's career and are lyrical works, betraying the characteristically lush orchestral textures familiar from Glazunov's symphonies and ballets.

Alexander Goedicke (Medtner's cousin!) wrote his Concertstück earlier than Glazunov's two concertos despite being the younger man. The work was published in 1900 and won the composer the Rubinstein Prize for Composition, bringing him early fame hardly matched by any subsequent successes. The Concertstück is rhapsodic, with much brilliant piano writing and a distinctly Russian flavour to its themes.