Simon Callaghan - British Piano Concertos Vol. 2 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Philip Cannon's Concertino for piano and strings (1951) dates from his formative years. It was written for the Petersfield Festival, where it was premiered on 27 January 1951 by soloist Joseph Cooper, with the Petersfield Orchestra conducted by Kathleen Merritt. This lively, neo-classical piece has achieved over a thousand performances internationally. Though John Addison's Concertino for piano and orchestra is, for the most part, couched in a light-hearted language, it is the product of a serious, and unfailingly inventive, approach to keyboard and orchestral writing. Speaking of the work to Lesie Ayre of the London Evening News, the composer remarked that, 'it is a real concerto in the full sense of the word I would not be ashamed to show the work to any first-class pianist'. Francis Chagrin maintained an intensely practical and unpretentious attitude towards his own craft, observing that, 'My music is not for first performances - it is just to be played'. His Piano Concerto was first performed by soloist Franz Osborn, with the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer, at an SPNM Experimental Rehearsal held at the Royal College of Music on 4 February 1944. Conversation Piece by John Addison was written in 1958 to a commission from the BBC Concert Orchestra for that year's British Light Music Festival. John Addison felt that, by the late-1950s, too great a divide had opened up between serious and light music 'Concertgoers think contemporary music is so alarmingly serious that when confronted with a mildly witty turn of phrase, they assume something has gone wrong. I remember the astonished sigh of relief when, in the course of introducing one of my chamber works, I told the audience I would not mind if they smiled'. In Conversation Piece, Addison exploits to the full his talent to amuse and divert.

In his obituary of William Busch, the writer and broadcaster John Amis observed that 'His music is distinguished by it's sensibility and warmth with a strong sense of form and a fine texture, linear rather than harmonic. It is tragic that he should have died when he was writing at the height of his powers and at a time when his gifts were beginning to receive recognition. Recognition will not cease now, for his work has permanent values'. Over forty year later, in a series of radio programs entitled 'Forgotten Reputations', Amis warned that 'Of all the musicians of the '30s and '40s... William Busch is the most likely to be forgotten'. The current preserves an important part of his creative legacy and seeks to ensure that his music lives on. Though some of Rebecca Clarke's most successful pieces feature the piano, such as her Viola Sonata (1919) and Piano Trio (1921) and her writing for the instrument in those scores is both idiomatic and inventive, she only wrote a handful of solo piano pieces, all featured on this .

The music on this album dates from the composer's later years, and are largely based on themes from his earlier successes. The inspiration for Holbrooke's music was almost always literary; hence, the large number of symphonic poems and pieces with literary titles or subtitles in his work list. Almost all the 8 Nocturnes, Op. 121 employ material from some of Holbrooke's most successful and popular earlier works. The music critic Ernest Newman, in an often quoted appreciation of the composer written in 1902, wrote that Inch... Holbrooke can do quite easily and unconsciously what [Richard] Strauss has only done half a dozen times in his career - he can write a big, heartfelt melody that searches us to the very bone... Inch, and these Nocturnes display Josef's gift for lyricism. The two Fantasie-Sonatas, Opp. 124 & 128 respectively, are important and substantial works from Holbrooke's later years. The first is closely based on the opening movement of the Dramatic Choral Symphony 'Homage to E.A. Poe', Op. 48 (1902-1907), but skilfully adapted for pianistic effectiveness. The second Fantasie-Sonata, 'Destiny', does not recycle earlier material it is an entirely original composition of two movements. Based on the slow movement of the fine Horn Trio, Op. 28 (1902), Cambrian Ballade No. 4 Op. 104 Maentrog commences in the lilting character of a berceuse. A more animated central section leads to an ardent reprise of the opening theme and a coda like a sudden shower of rain. It is tempting to think that in this composition the composer looked back wistfully to a period when his creative fires burned brightly and his talents were recognized by the musical world. [Gareth Vaughan]