John Lenehan, Simon Haram - Michael Nyman: The Piano Concerto & Where the Bee Dances (1998) CD-Rip

This isn’t the best recording of The Piano Concerto. Despite the fact that, for me at least, John Lenehan has always been the definitive Nyman pianist other than the composer himself, Stott’s interpretation has more vigour and Lawson’s more musicality. Lenehan’s performance is also muddied by the recording’s vague acoustic, a particularly telling problem for die-hard Nymaniacs who have grown up with the crisp, punchy, quasi-rock production style entirely appropriate to Nyman’s music and a trademark since his work with David Cunningham in the early 1980s. John Harle’s association with the composer dates back to the same period, and he is an impossible act to follow in the case of Where the Bee Dances, which finds Simon Haram’s playing to be less assertive though elegant in its tone quality and sense of balance, making for a more attractive coupling than the galumphing MGV on the Argo recording. The Tring disc also includes On the Fiddle and a generous slice of Prospero’s Books which, despite omitting the stunning “Masque” section (no budget for singers?) probably adds up to the best of the bunch.
That said, buy this disc anyway, whether or not you have one or both of the others. It is laughably cheap and offers an opportunity to hear a further interpretation of the main work. Naxos also have some Part, Gubaidulina and Boulez, with some Adams and Glass to come, and any recordings of modern music at a price that allows experimentation really deserve to be bought first and questioned later.'