Search - Ralph Vaughan Williams, Frederick Delius, Gerald Finzi :: Vaughan Williams, Delius: Piano Concertos; Finzi: Eclouge

Overlooked Vaughan Williams, even by me...

jsa | San Diego, CA United States | 07/03/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Although a very long time devotee to the music of Ralph Vaughan Williams, I had never heard his Piano Concerto until buying this disc. I never imagined that the piano could adequately communicate the essence of Vaughan Williams' music & was also under the impression, based on the relative dearth of recordings, that his concerto was an oddity. Well, I was glad to find out that I was wrong - the Piano Concerto is a major work full of classic Vaughan Williams themes & is satisfying on every level.



I have no basis to judge this performance as I am new to the music; however, I selected this recording because I think anything Vernon Handley records in the British repertory is pretty much authoritative. Repeated listenings also reveal Piers Lane to be a fine pianist who truly understands Vaughan Williams. There are a couple of recordings by Howard Shelley that are supposed to be excellent, one on Lyrita w/Handley & a later effort on Chandos w/Bryden Thomson, however, they have different pairings & are more expensive than this attractively priced cd.



The companion pieces on this intelligently programmed disc include the Delius Piano Concerto & Finzi's Eclogue. I'm very familiar with the Delius concerto through a recording I bought decades ago by Alexander Gibson & the LSO with pianist Jean Rudolphe Kars, a record that also included an exceptional reading of Debussy's Fantasy for Piano & Orchestra. In any event, the Delius concerto is an enjoyable work & I find that Handley/Piers Lane are actually better-rounded than Gibson/Kars.



Gerald Finzi's Eclogue, which was originally planned as a movement in a concerto that never came to pass, is ten minutes of elegiac music for piano & string orchestra. It's just beautiful & once you hear it you'll want to start acquiring other music from this still under-appreciated master.



Very highly recommended!"