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Thursday, July 20, 2017

Henri Herz - Piano Concerto No. 2; Polonaise; Fantaisies (Howard Shelley)


Information

Composer: Henri Herz
  1. Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 74: 1. Allegro moderato
  2. Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 74: 2. Andantino cantabile con molt' espressione
  3. Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 74: 3. Rondo: Allegro vivo
  4. Grande fantaisie militaire sur La fille du régiment, Op. 163
  5. Fantaisie et variations sur la marche d'Otello de Rossini, Op. 67
  6. Grande polonaise brillante, Op. 30

Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Howard Shelley, piano & conductor

Date: 2015
Label: Hyperion
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68100

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Review

Public taste is a fickle thing. The higher your standing, the greater your fall – pianistic superstars of today take note. As far as 19th-century audiences were concerned, Henri Herz could do no wrong, although he annoyed his more serious counterparts – even Schumann called him a ‘talented hack’. Herz’s talent (a bit like that of the recently departed James Last) lay not in profundity but in pleasing the crowds, and he did that exceptionally well. Howard Shelley is clearly convinced; this is his third Hyperion disc devoted to Herz’s works for piano and orchestra.

Brahms it ain’t (and all the better for that, you may well think). There is a high-spirited quality to everything here: even in C minor, the key of the Second Concerto, there’s a kind of glee underlying the first orchestral tutti. But Herz could also write a gracious tune with the best of them, as witness the lyrical second idea of the concerto’s first movement or the aria-like one that opens the Andantino. And it has to be said that his writing for wind leaves Chopin’s in the shade – he evidently had a particular fondness for the oboe. If the finale is a triumph of effect over substance, it’s engaging enough when played with such élan as here.

The overblown silliness of the percussion and brass opening of the Fille du régiment Fantasy gives way to ever more hair-raising pyrotechnics as its variations progress. It ends in a mood of high campery, the triangle player and piccolo player doing overtime. And though the Fantasy on Rossini’s Otello opens in a darker mood, as befits the subject, it doesn’t stay serious for long. Shelley by turns charms and dazzles.

‘Chopin’, you might think, on hearing the Grande Polonaise brillante, but in fact – as Jeremy Nicholas points out in his predictably entertaining notes – this piece predates Chopin’s own Op 22 Grande Polonaise by several years. It’s a real charmer, especially in the hands of such astute musicians.

Unless your doctor has prescribed some strict froth-free diet (and how tedious would that be), I can heartily recommend a dose of Herz.

-- Harriet Smith, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://audaud.com/2015/08/henri-herz-piano-concerto-no-2-in-c-minor-and-other-works-howard-shelley-piano-tasmanian-sym-orch-howard-shelley-hyperion-hi-res/
http://www.allmusic.com/album/romantic-piano-concerto-vol-66-herz-piano-concerto-no-2-mw0002856307
https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/mgj/Herz-Concerto-Tasmanian-Symphony-Orchestra-HYPERION-CDA68100/B00Y3VYP1M

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Henri Herz (6 January 1803 - 5 January 1888) was a pianist and composer, Austrian by birth, and French by domicile. Herz was a celebrated pianist, traveled worldwide, including tours in Europe, Russia, Mexico, South America, and in the United States of America between 1846–50, where he concertized all the way to San Francisco. Among his major works are eight piano concertos, a piano sonata, rondos, nocturnes, waltzes, marches, fantasias, and numerous sets of variations. Herz taught at the Conservatoire between 1842 and 1874.

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Howard Shelley (born 9 March 1950) is a British pianist and conductor. He was educated at Highgate School and the Royal College of Music. As pianist he has performed, broadcast and recorded around the world with leading orchestras and conductors. He made many recordings for Chandos, Hyperion and EMI, including Rachmaninov's complete piano music and concertos. As a conductor, he has held positions of Associate and Principal Guest Conductor with the London Mozart Players in a close relationship of over twenty years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Shelley

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5 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Ronald Do,
    Thanks.

    A single pdf file with all the (merged) booklets of the Romantic Piano Concerto series up to volume 66 can be downloaded here:
    http://www20.zippyshare.com/v/D4XgnPpK/file.html

    This pdf file (The_Romantic_Piano_Concerto_booklets_1-66.pdf, 10.9 MB) has 1.168 pages, is fully searchable, contains all illustrations and bookmarks for each of the 66 volumes.

    Note: From volume 63 onward Hyperion has changed the size of the pages (volumes 1-62: 120 x 120 mm, volume 63, 64: 209.4 x 279.4 mm). Therefore the page content of the booklets 63, 64, 65 & 66 can't be scaled down to 120 x 120 without distorting the aspect ratio. So the page size of these booklets hasn't been adjusted.

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  3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  4. Hi, Download link is not more available.
    Please would you like replace it?
    Thank you so much for this blog and your kind attention.
    Kind Regards.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Choose one link, copy and paste it to your browser's address bar, wait a few seconds (you may need to click 'Continue' first), then click 'Free Access with Ads' / 'Get link'. Complete the steps / captchas if require.
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    or
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    ReplyDelete