イギリスのピアノ協奏曲集

イギリス音楽ファン必聴のピアノ協奏曲アルバム!

これまでにも知られざる音楽を多数録音し、日の目を当ててきたピアノ奏者サイモン・キャラハンによるイギリスの作曲家たちのピアノ協奏曲集。
映画音楽の作曲家として著名でアカデミー賞やグラミー賞を受賞、さらにはエミー賞までも獲得しているジョン・アディスンの《ウェリントン組曲》や、ヴォーン・ウィリアムズに師事し、管弦楽曲だけでなくオペラも残した女性作曲家エリザベス・マコンキーの作品など、アーサー・ベンジャミン以外の作品は全てファースト・レコーディングという貴重な録音です。

※当タイトルは、高品質メディア(SONY DADC/Diamond Silver Discs)を使用した、レーベル・オフィシャルのCD-R盤となります。
東京エムプラス

Browsers may be surprised to see six works listed on a single CD here, but that is part of the great charm of the album. These are not just British piano concertos but concertos of a specific type, written in the middle 20th century for reduced forces and designed to be performed at special occasions or in student settings. The pieces are all brief, and the composers had to say what they wanted to say concisely. Almost all of these works were forgotten soon after they had served their purposes; all but one here receive their world premieres, and the exception, the Concertino for piano and orchestra of Arthur Benjamin, has just one recording, from 1959. That work has a slow movement labeled Andante poco Lento, con il sentiment ed il tempo dun Blues; Benjamin didnt understand the blues as well as Ravel did, but its an entirely novel piece. Most of the music is sprightly neoclassicism and a great deal of fun. The Concertino for piano and string orchestra of Elizabeth Maconchy -- her second from 1949 -- is 12 minutes of perfection, without a wasted note. This type of piano concerto extended across several different styles; the Concerto for piano, percussion, & strings of Humphrey Searle is an early example of British serialism from the 1950s, but it does not break the mood. The concluding A Little Concerto on Themes of Thomas Arne is neoclassicism on a very high level, tuneful and transparent. The performances by Simon Callaghan and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Martyn Brabbins are utterly idiomatic, and the sound from Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff is perfect. A real find that eminently deserves its best-seller status. Who convinced the world that classical music wasnt supposed to be fun?