Search - William Alwyn, Richard Hickox, London Symphony Orchestra :: Alwyn: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2, Overture to a Masque

William Alwyn's early First Piano Concerto was written for his friend Clifford Curzon. It's a young man's music, brimming with large-scale ideas, some of which remind the listener that Alwyn went on to become a prolific composer of film scores. The Second Concerto is a mature work the composer abandoned after the premiere was derailed by the soloist's illness. This recording was its first performance, although Alwyn's widow had to fashion a replacement for the lost slow movement. It opens with an attention-getting burst of energetic power in the brass, gradually relaxing into a warm lyricism and progressing from there. Typical of Alwyn's music, it's brilliantly scored. Howard Shelley performs both concertos with all the requisite technical and tonal command to make them shine. Richard Hickox and the first-rate orchestra accompany him well, and they excel in the dancelike Overture to a Masque and the Elizabethan Dances, a lovely set of six dances bristling with spirit and easy on the ears. --Dan Davis