Release Date: 31 December 2004
Label: Naxos - Ex Select Products / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313229024
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: FERGUSON / GERHARD / ROWLEY / DARNTON
Description
Alec Rowley (1892-1958): Piano Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 49Christian Darnton (1905-1981): Piano Concertino in C majorRoberto Gerhard (1896-1970): Concerto for piano and stringsHoward Ferguson (1908-1999): Concerto for piano and string orchestra, Op. 12This recording brings together a fascinating collectionof piano concertos by four very diverse composers thatwere all written in the middle decades of the lastcentury. Alec Rowley is a neglected figure nowadays,although his music enjoyed wide currency during hislifetime. His career embraced composition,performance (as organist and pianist), teaching andwriting. He studied at the Royal Academy of Musicwhere his composition teacher was Frederick Corder.In 1919 he became professor of composition at TrinityCollege, and during the 1930s he formed a piano duetpartnership with Edgar Moy, with whom he wasfrequently heard in BBC broadcasts. Much of hismusic was conceived for educational or amateurpurposes and includes a series of what he called'miniature' concertos for piano, violin, cello andorgan, as well as works for strings (English DanceSuite) and orchestra (In an Apple Orchard). Otherorchestral works include two piano concertos and theThree Idylls for piano and orchestra heard at the Promsin 1942. Further information about his life and musicmay be found in Beryl Kington's fascinating bookRowley Rediscovered.Rowley's First Piano Concerto received itspremi?¿re in a BBC broadcast in August 1938. Thesoloist was Franz Weitzmann with members of theBBC Orchestra conducted by Warwick Braithwaite.Apart from strings, the concerto is deftly scored for adlib percussion and timpani which are included on thisrecording. It opens with an arresting introductionmarked by a fanfare motif and piquant harmonies. Themusic that follows, clearly based on the fanfare, has abreezy, open-air freshness about it and has as itssecondary theme a winsome, lyrical melody. A simplewistful waltz, full of pastoral charm and a hint ofDelius, provides a foil to the energetic outermovements. The opening of the finale is an exactrepeat of the first movement's introduction until itveers away on a course of its own, with the fanfaremotif now transformed in the bass. Overall the mood isjocular as heard in the contrasting theme with itsteasing syncopations. The fanfare motif returns tocrown the concerto before it ends with a sparklingcoda.Christian Darnton is the least known composerrepresented here and the primary source of informationabout him may be found in the pioneering thesis of DrAndrew Plant, whose generous help the present writergratefully acknowledges. Darnton studied compositionwith Charles Wood at Cambridge University, then thebassoon and conducting at the Royal College of Musicin London, with further composition lessons with MaxButting in Berlin. Darnton's early music of the 1930sis advanced and dissonant and includes the PianoConcerto and the Five Orchestral Pieces, a criticalsuccess at its Warsaw premi?¿re in 1939. His book
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
