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Monday, January 23, 2017

Arthur Bliss - Piano Concertos; Piano Sonata (Peter Donohoe)


Information

Composer: Arthur Bliss
  1. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in B flat major: I. Allegro con brio
  2. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in B flat major: II. Adagietto
  3. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in B flat major: III. Andante maestoso - Molto vivo
  4. Sonata for Piano: I. Moderato marcato
  5. Sonata for Piano: II. Adagio sereno
  6. Sonata for Piano: III. Allegro
  7. Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra: Allegro giusto - Larghetto tranquillo - Vivo

Peter Donohoe, piano
Martin Roscoe, piano (7)
Royal Scottish National Orchestra (1-3, 7)
David Lloyd-Jones, conductor (1-3, 7)

Date: 2004
Label: Naxos
http://www.naxos.com/catalogue/item.asp?item_code=8.557146

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Review

Eager and polished performances that do Bliss absolutely proud

In recent times Bliss’s swaggering Piano Concerto (written in 1938-39 for Solomon) has found a champion in Peter Donohoe, and it’s good that he has been able to set down his powerful interpretation as part of Naxos’s British Piano Concertos series. As those thunderous octaves at the outset demonstrate, Bliss’s bravura writing holds no terrors for Donohoe and he generates a satisfying rapport with David Lloyd-Jones and the RSNO. Theirs is a beautifully prepared and attentive reading which grips from start to finish. The bittersweet central Adagietto casts an especially potent spell (the closing measures are ravishing – try from 9'19"), while both outer movements harness blistering virtuosity to supple affection. All told, a worthy modern counterpart to those thrilling historic displays from Solomon and Mewton-Wood listed above. 

No less compelling is the buoyant account of the Concerto for Two Pianos: an infectiously enjoyable, single-movement work that began life in 1921 as a Concerto for Piano, Tenor and Strings (that same year, Bliss embarked on his Colour Symphony, of which there are fleeting echoes here). The present revision dates from 1950; 18 years later, Bliss overhauled the piece one last time for the three-hand partnership of Phyllis Sellick and Cyril Smith. As in the Piano Concerto, the recording’s a touch bright and clangorous, but the ear soon adjusts. 

Fortunately, no such technical qualms surround Donohoe’s intelligent and accomplished performance of the Sonata composed in 1952 for Noel Mewton-Wood (who gave the première in a BBC broadcast the following year, not long before his suicide). With his commanding presence and rich tonal palette, Donohoe again exhibits a remarkable empathy with Bliss’s red-blooded inspiration. This rewarding Naxos disc deserves every success.

-- Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/feb04/Bliss_Piano_concerto.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/mar04/Bliss_piano.htm
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2004/jan/23/classicalmusicandopera.shopping3
http://www.allmusic.com/album/arthur-bliss-piano-concerto-piano-sonata-concerto-for-two-pianos-mw0001411827
http://www.naxos.com/reviews/reviewslist.asp?catalogueid=8.557146&languageid=EN
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Arthur-Bliss-Concerto-Sonata-Pianos/dp/B0000ZKY10
https://www.amazon.com/Bliss-Piano-Concerto-Sonata-Pianos/dp/B0000ZKY10

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Arthur Bliss (2 August 1891 – 27 March 1975) was an English composer and conductor. After the First World War, he quickly became known as an unconventional and modernist composer, but within the decade he began to display a more traditional and romantic side in his music. In Bliss's later years, his work was respected but was thought old-fashioned, and it was eclipsed by the music of younger colleagues such as William Walton and Benjamin Britten. Since his death, his compositions have been well represented on record, and many of his better-known works remain in the repertoire of British orchestras.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Bliss

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Peter Donohoe (born 18 June 1953 in Manchester, England) is an English classical pianist. Donohoe exclusively signed with EMI Records in 1988, beginning a relationship that lasted until 1993, producing a major collection of CDs, which tend largely towards 20th century composers. Since 1993, he has made many recordings on a freelance basis with Deutsche Gramophon, Hyperion, Chandos, BMG, Warner and Naxos. His series of recordings devoted to British works for piano and orchestra was inaugurated in 2001, growing to a catalogue of 14 works.

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