Edmund Rubbra; Arthur Bliss - Piano Concertos (Piers Lane)

Information

Composer: Edmund Rubbra; Arthur Bliss

• Rubbra - Piano Concerto in G, Op. 85
• Bax - Morning Song 'Maytime in Sussex'
• Bliss - Piano Concerto in B flat major

Piers Lane, piano

The Orchestra Now

Leon Botstein, conductor

Date: 2020

Label: Hyperion

https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68297

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Review

Here’s a terrific new version of the dashing Piano Concerto that Bliss wrote for Solomon, who gave the premiere at Carnegie Hall with Sir Adrian Boult and the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra during British Week at the 1939 World’s Fair (you can hear Bryan Crimp’s restoration of this remarkable document on APR, A/03). Piers Lane dispatches those fearsome double octaves at the outset with thrilling bravura swagger, his contribution throughout evincing both sinewy strength and fine rhythmic snap, while at the same time extracting every ounce of lyrical beauty from the many more introspective passages. Granted, in the gorgeously languorous and deeply affecting slow movement he may not quite possess Noel Mewton-Wood’s mesmerically pellucid touch (BMS, 11/03), but he comes mighty close and is fortunate in receiving such attentive, supple support from Leon Botstein and his eager young colleagues. A most impressive display, this, and genuine tonic to boot.

The Rubbra, by contrast, has suffered neglect; indeed, this would appear to be the only commercial recording of it since Denis Matthews’s pioneering early stereo version for HMV with Sir Malcolm Sargent and the BBC SO (4/58, last sighted on British Composers). Inscribed to the Hindustani sarod player Ali Akbar Khan (whose improvisatory music-making made a big impression on the composer when he heard him in the spring of 1955), it’s a work of conspicuous organic subtlety and quiet individuality which eschews any suggestion of barnstorming display and shares something of that same sense of pantheistic wonder and spiritual devotion so loftily distilled in the slow movement and finale respectively of the Sixth and Seventh symphonies that flank it in Rubbra’s catalogue. If memory serves, both Matthews with Sargent and Malcolm Binns with Vernon Handley – in their broadcast performance from February 1976 with the composer in attendance (BBC Radio Classics, 9/97 – nla) – were rather more mobile in the first movement and ruminative central ‘Dialogue’, but these sensitive and stylish newcomers do ample justice to a score as haunting as it is nourishing.

Sandwiched between the two main courses comes Bax’s winsome Morning Song (‘Maytime in Sussex’), a delightfully deft vehicle for Harriet Cohen dating from 1946, and whose fragrant, outdoor charm is most affectionately conveyed by these excellent artists. With its admirably realistic sound and truthful balance, this represents a most stimulating and enjoyable addition to Hyperion’s invaluable Romantic Piano Concerto series.

-- Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone

More reviews:

https://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2020/Jul/Bliss_Rubbra_CDA68297.htm

https://www.limelight-arts.com.au/reviews/rubbra-bliss-piano-concertos-piers-lane/

https://www.audaud.com/the-romantic-piano-concerto-vol-81-piers-lane-hyperion/

https://www.allmusic.com/album/the-romantic-piano-concerto-vol-81-rubbra-bliss-mw0003377222

https://www.amazon.com/Romantic-Piano-Concerto-Vol-81/dp/B0874JFY2B

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Edmund Rubbra (23 May 1901 – 14 February 1986) was a British composer. He composed both instrumental and vocal works for soloists, chamber groups and full choruses and orchestras. Rubbra was greatly esteemed by fellow musicians and was at the peak of his fame in the mid-20th century. The best known of his pieces are his eleven symphonies. Although he was active at a time when many people wrote twelve-tone music, he decided not to write in this idiom; instead, he devised his own distinctive style. Rubbra's output as a whole is less celebrated today than would have been expected from its early popularity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Rubbra

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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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Piers Lane (born 8 January 1958) is an Australian classical pianist. He graduated with a Medal of Excellence from the Queensland Conservatorium of Music, where his teacher was Nancy Weir. Lane's performance career has taken him to more than 40 countries, including five times as a soloist at the BBC Proms. His concerto repertoire exceeds 75 works. Lane has an extensive discography on the Hyperion label and has also recorded for EMI, Decca, BMG, Lyrita and Unicorn-Kanchana. Lane is a well-known voice on BBC Radio 3, having written and presented more than 100 programs, including a 54-part series called The Piano.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piers_Lane

http://www.pierslane.com/

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