Hyperion Records | The Romantic Piano Concerto, Vol. 39

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CDA67296

Buy? £13.99

Recording details: March 2005
Ulster Hall, Belfast, United Kingdom
Produced by Andrew Keener
Engineered by Simon Eadon
Release date: January 2006
Total duration: 64 minutes 4 seconds
Available for download on iTunes: Yes

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ORCHESTRAL CHOICE - BBC Music Magazine

CLASSICAL CD OF THE WEEK - Sunday Times

'Robert Threlfall's notes make a good case for regarding the three-movement original as having a greater validity, and this splendid first recording bears him out … Piers Lane, an eloquent advocate' (BBC Music Magazine)

'This Hyperion newcomer possesses many virtues. Piers Lane responds with nimble sensitivity, David Lloyd-Jones secures a tidy response from the Ulster Orchestra and the performance as a whole has a sparkle, eagerness and snap that are most refreshing' (Gramophone)

'Those who are familiar with (and those who have dismissed) Delius's Piano Concerto in the 1907 revision should make the acquaintance of the original version without more ado' (International Record Review)

'Lane makes a convincing case for the piece, and his performance is paired with an equally sparky one of John Ireland's concerto. His punchy abrasiveness undercuts the work's more fey moments, and gives it an almost neoclassical edge' (The Guardian)

'this first recording of the original version from 1904 reveals a work stamped with far more rhapsodic gusto and genuine heartache than the composer's misguided revisions suggest. Lane's performance is very enjoyable; the recording does the players proud' (The Times)

'Delius's Piano Concerto gets strong advocacy from Lane, Lloyd-Jones and the Ulster Orchestra. The two Ireland works, Legend and the Piano Concerto, make ideal companions on this highly attractive, collectable disc' (Sunday Times)

'it is interesting to hear Delius in a robust frame of mind, and the performance itself is one of great allure and power' (The Daily Telegraph)

'Lane gives engagingly virtuoso, extrovert and affectionate performances throughout' (Classic FM Magazine)

'Throughout, Piers Lane is sympathetic, sensitive and a virtuoso, and the support from David Lloyd-Jones and the Ulster Orchestra is exact. The vivid recording presents an exemplary balance between piano and orchestra' (Fanfare, USA)

The Romantic Piano Concerto, Vol. 39 – Delius & Ireland

Piers Lane (piano), Ulster Orchestra, David Lloyd-Jones (conductor)

		Piano Concerto in C minor, original 1904 version Frederick Delius (1862-1934)
1		Movement 1: Allegro ma non troppo [10:58]
2		Movement 2: Largo [6:05]
3		Movement 3: Maestoso con moto moderato [11:32]
4		Legend [11:38] John Ireland (1879-1962)
		Piano Concerto in E flat major John Ireland (1879-1962)
5		Movement 1: In tempo moderato [8:48]
6		Movement 2a: Lento espressivo – Allegro – Cadenza – [7:12]
7		Movement 2b: Allegretto giocoso [7:51]

Hyperion’s record of the month for January presents, for the first time, the original version of Delius’s Piano Concerto. Two years after completing this work in 1904, Delius recast it, rejecting the third movement and reorganizing other material. Perhaps thinking that the solo part wasn’t sufficiently pianistic, Delius also consulted a friend, the Busoni pupil Theodor Szántó, who rewrote the piano part in virtuoso style (with Delius’s ultimate approval). It is the Szántó version that has, until now, always been performed. With Delius’s original, characteristically refined orchestration also restored (from the orchestral parts that survive from the first performance in 1904), we can now hear this work as the composer envisaged before the involvement of another hand. The result is closer to what we think of as quintessential Delius. Piers Lane and David Lloyd-Jones form an ideal partnership, and the result is a revelation.

John Ireland’s Piano Concerto, written in 1930, was seen at the time as a British response to Prokofiev’s Third Piano Concerto, and it has additional resonances of Ravel and Gershwin. The work was an immediate success and became the pre-eminent British piano concerto, performed by Clifford Curzon, Moura Lympany, Eileen Joyce, Gina Bachauer and Artur Rubinstein. Encouraged by its success Ireland planned to write a second concerto, but he only completed one movement, the Legend, in 1933. Once more Piers Lane and the Ulster musicians bring an engaging energy and flair to this exciting music.