VA - British Piano Concertos (2014)

This boxed set reassembles largely analog material from existing Lyrita CDs under a new generic grouping. Dates and locations of recording sessions are not given. Lyrita seem always to have been reticent about those details. The sound is a model of its kind – Lyrita were always able to boast glorious sound.

The freshly written liner-notes are by the authoritative and accessible Paul Conway and run to ten pages. These are not a simple retread of the original notes by other authors.

There is provocative variety to be found in this Piano Concerto box, serving up Stanford's least neglected piano concerto which is both Brahmsian and yet has a dash of Rachmaninov about it. The Finzi Eclogue is a peaceful spiritual essay - it causes no offence and imparts a blessing as it passes. The Foulds and Bridge pieces are not concertos. The former is a fantastic display of brilliance of imagination and technique while the Bridge parallels his own Oration - which is not included in these sets - in its tension and bleak expressive power. It does have its heroics but they are bitter indeed. The Vaughan Williams concerto recalls the world of his Fourth Symphony while the Rawsthorne is softer and more yielding than we may be accustomed to from this source. The Scott Poem, with its roundabout convolutions and folksong game-play, contrasts with the Busch Piano Concerto. Ireland's Legend is another Sussex ancient sorcery, quite different in its subtlety to the crowd-pleasing romantic heroics of the Moeran Rhapsody, which plants its confident feet in 1940s film piano concerto pastures; it’s very enjoyable. The last disc lets us hear again three piano concertos: early, accessible and not fully characteristic in the case of the Hoddinott and Berkeley; and fully mature in the case of Williamson’s joyously clangourous and angular Third Piano Concerto.

Generosity is the order of the day. No CD plays for less than 72:00. The price point is attractive and may well make this suitable for the intrepid and open-minded soul as Christmas presents, if the original CDs are not already on the intended receivers' shelves. –– Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International