Constant Lambert: Piano Concerto & Sonata; Li-Po Poems; Mr. Bear Squash-you-all-flat

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Lambert (1905-1951) was born in Britain the same year as Rawsthorne and Tippett, but his music couldn't be more different. Lambert was drawn to popular culture (jazz in particular) and his music fairly pops with its influence. The Concerto for Piano and Nine Players (1924) is filled with heady jazz rhythms and is more American than British. Also of note here is the Eight Poems of Li-Po, a youthful work influenced by the ballet of Diaghilev with the eight poems put to chamber ensemble and tenor. Philip Langridge is the tenor here and his voice has the just the right charm to it. --Paul Cook

Tracks:

Concerto In B-Flat For 2 Violins, Strings & Harpsichord, RV 524: II. Andante
Lullaby
Violin Concerto No. 4 In D, K. 218: III. Rondo-Andante grazioso
Enigma Variations, Op. 36: Beginning
Serenade for Strings in E, Op. 22: I. Moderato
Lohengrin: Prelude to Act III
Violin Concerto No. 6 In G Minor: II. Adagio
Ave Maria
Ancient Airs & Dances: Italiana
Coppelia: Waltz
Orpheus In The Underworld: Waltz
Les Patineurs: Pas de trois
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, K. 525: III. Menuetto: Allegretto
Menuet Celebre
Vocalise, Op. 34 No. 14
Of Holberg's Days, Op. 40: I. Prelude
Traumerei, Op. 15 No. 7
Serenade For Strings, Op. 48: II. Waltz
Badinerie
Hungarian Dance No. 1
Concerto Grosso No. 6 In G Minor: II. A tempo giusto
The Four Seasons: Winter, II. Largo
Violin Concerto No. 2 In A Minor, BMV 1041: III. Allegro assai
Spanish Dance No. 6, Op. 23: Zapateado
24 Caprices For Solo Violin, Op. 1: Tema con variazioni

Constant Lambert: Piano Concerto & Sonata; Li-Po Poems; Mr. Bear Squash-you-all-flat

Average customer rating:

A Very Fine Cross-Section of Lambert's Chamber Music

Constant Lambert: Piano Concerto & Sonata; Li-Po Poems; Mr. Bear Squash-you-all-flat

Manufacturer: Hyperion UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Constant Lambert: Summer's Last Will and Testament / Shimell, Burgess, Lloyd-Jones
Constant Lambert: Piano Concerto; Romeo and Juliet; The Bird Actors; etc.
Mr. Bear Squash-You-All-Flat

ASIN: B000002ZV4
Release Date: 1995-05-23

Amazon.com

Lambert (1905-1951) was born in Britain the same year as Rawsthorne and Tippett, but his music couldn't be more different. Lambert was drawn to popular culture (jazz in particular) and his music fairly pops with its influence. The Concerto for Piano and Nine Players (1924) is filled with heady jazz rhythms and is more American than British. Also of note here is the Eight Poems of Li-Po, a youthful work influenced by the ballet of Diaghilev with the eight poems put to chamber ensemble and tenor. Philip Langridge is the tenor here and his voice has the just the right charm to it. --Paul Cook

Customer Reviews:

A Very Fine Cross-Section of Lambert's Chamber Music.......2005-01-07

I'm a little surprised that there has been no review of this now-ten-year-old disc heretofore at Amazon. It's an essential collection of chamber music from the pen of one of that remarkable generation of British musicians born just after the turn of the 20th century. Constant Lambert was born the same year as Michael Tippett and Alan Rawsthorne, 1905. He was a prodigy and two of the pieces here ('Mr Bear Squash-You-All-Flat' and 'Eight Poems of Li-Po') were composed before his twentieth birthday. To later generations he has probably been best known for his trenchant book about modern music, 'Westward, Ho!' (1934) which contains some remarkably sound, even prescient, judgments about trends in music of the time. He was a musical jack-of-all-trades, functioning as composer, pianist, conductor, music administrator, educator, writer and impresario. Surely, though, posterity will remember him primarily as a composer of original and elegantly crafted music that incorporates jazz elements into a neo-classic style that is uniquely his. Those characteristics are present in the works presented here although one can detect a maturation and solidification of his personal style as one moves from the very early 'Mr Bear' (1924) to the latest piece here, the Piano Concerto (1931).

'Mr Bear Squash-You-All-Flat' lay unperformed until 1979, 55 years after it was written, for reasons that are not clear. It was then put on by music students at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and until this recording that was its only prior exposure. It is a trifle, to be sure, but certainly worth hearing. It is rather like Walton's contemporaneous 'Façade,' that famous, even notorious, chamber piece with spoken poetry. (It is of note that Lambert was a friend of Walton's and the Sitwells' and actually performed as 'Speaker' in a presentation of 'Façade' in 1926.) 'Mr Bear' is scored for eight players--flute doubling piccolo, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone, piano and two percussionists. The spoken text is supposedly based on a Russian folk tale (although a precise source for it has never been found) which is rather a shaggy dog (or bear) story that frankly is a little tiresome. Nigel Hawthorne, that wonderful actor probably known best to Americans from the BBC series, 'Yes, Minister,' does as fine a job as one could ask with the narration, although he does tend to chew the curtain a bit. The music could easily stand on its own, and my guess is that future performances might very well dispose with the narration. There is some indication that Lambert intended the music to accompany a ballet and frankly one suspects it might work better that way, with the narration translated into dance. One last thought about it: I kept being reminded not only of 'Façade' but also of Stravinsky's 'L'Histoire du Soldat,' not least because of Lambert's incorporation of ragtime rhythms and bluesy harmonies.

Two years after Lambert had written 'Mr Bear,' he began composing 'Eight Poems of Li-Po.' That Chinese poet had inspired music from such disparate composers as Mahler ('Das Lied von der Erde') and Arthur Bliss ('The Woman of Yueh'). These eight pieces take up only fourteen minutes, being very brief settings of Li-Po's terse, evocative and coolly distanced poems about nature, nostalgia and lost love. Written when Lambert was in thrall to the American silent movie actress Anna May Wong and dedicated to her, they convey a restrained passion that ends with 'The Long-Departed Love,' which acknowledges the impossibility of his love. Miss Wong, a third-generation Chinese-American from California who was more flapper than mysterious Chinese seductress and who chewed gum and spouted American slang, would have been amused, I suspect, at Lambert's musical love letter. Nonetheless, these are exquisite settings of exquisite poetry whose restraint and delicacy make them all the more effective. The singer is Philip Langridge whose diction and ability to convey musical line are perfect for these songs. The instrumental accompaniment is scored for flute, oboe, clarinet, string quartet, and double bass, with addition of bassoon and percussion for the latter three songs. The writing is evocative and delicate, showing to advantage Lambert's extraordinary ear for instrumental atmosphere.

The 'Piano Sonata' dates from 1929 and is in three movements. It is written in jazzy rhythms and bluesy harmonies, reminding one at times of Gershwin, Milhaud or Ravel. If one didn't know the sonata's provenance one would be hard put to place its nationality of origin. It is clear that by the late 1920s Lambert had completely assimilated into his own style the yeasty ferment that jazz provided for composers of that era. In Lambert's output, this piece comes right after one of his undisputed masterpieces, 'Rio Grande.' Whereas in 'Rio Grande' the jazz-inflected style was obvious and external to suit Sacheverell Sitwell's jazz-age text, in the Piano Sonata the jazz harmonies and rhythms have been internalized to a remarkable degree. Particularly striking is the second movement described accurately by Giles Easterbrook in his exceedingly helpful and lengthy booklet notes as 'a blues in rondo form.' There are impressionist harmonies mixed with more obviously blues harmonies and one can hear, at this early date, something that reminds one of the music of later giants such as Duke Ellington and Bill Evans. The finale is a scurrying presto (after an introduction marked 'lugubre') that devolves into a spectacularly sassy fugato featuring clashing minor seconds and ninths, before ending in a pensive look back to the first movement.

The most impressive work on this CD (and indeed it is given pride of place on the front of the CD cover) is the wonderful 'Concerto for Piano and Nine Players.' This is his second piano concerto, actually. He wrote one in his teens, also for chamber accompaniment, but it was left in short score only to be revived and recorded (beautifully, one might add) by pianist David Owen Norris, accompanied by Barry Wordsworth and the BBC Concert Orchestra long after his death. The present work, written just after his dear friend, fellow composer Philip Heseltine (better known as 'Peter Warlock') committed suicide. This is a virtuoso work for the pianist and in spite of its accompaniment by only nine instruments, it sounds for all the world like a 'real' concerto with its power and extraordinarily 'big'-sounding orchestration. I don't quite know how Lambert accomplished this, but one certainly doesn't get the feeling that this is a little piece, a chamber piece. Lambert quotes musical themes written by his dead friend (most particularly from Warlock's 'The Frost-Bound Wood'). The first movement is a big sonata-movement form with jagged rhythms (much of the movement is in 7/4, with excursions into 11/8 and 13/8) and stark harmonies which are leavened by the crystalline glitter of treble piano figurations. One is unprepared, after the sudden halt of the first movement, for the quiet, anguished opening (bass clarinet, muted trumpet and trombone, with piccolo keening high above them) of the middle movement, 'Intermède.' (Is this opening a reference of one of Warlock's most heart-wrenching songs, 'The Curlew,' whose call is suggested here?) A faster section follows that maintains the quiet, almost desperate sadness of the earlier material; jazzy rhythms in the piano do little to dispel this--rather they suggest a kind of frantic desperation. Trombone glisses add a sardonic note. A couple of other passages alternating fast and slow tempi lead to a recurrence of the opening section in even bleaker orchestration. The finale is not a relief of tension as one might expect. It is marked, like the last movement of the piano sonata, 'Lugubre.' It sounds for all the world like a funeral procession, and perhaps that is what is intended. The piano has extended solo passages, slow and musing, that seem to paint an aloneness that perhaps the composer was feeling. There is a brave attempt at keeping a stiff upper lip, but underneath there is this unbearable sadness. For all the polish and almost Parisian urbanity, one hears utter desolation. Withal, Lambert manages to create a satisfying formal development of this material before he comes to a coda that quotes the opening material and then more or less just fades into the darkness, almost as if the composer doesn't have the energy to do much about it. The Piano Concerto is the first work on the CD and Hyperion has had the great wisdom to leave a very long period of silence at the end of the final movement, almost time enough to recover one's wits before the musicians start up again with the Li-Po songs. There is one previous recording of the piano concerto that I'm aware of: Richard Rodney Bennett accompanied by Neville Dilkes and the English Sinfonia. This performance is much superior because pianist and instrumentalists (and not least, conductor Lionel Friend) find the right combination of desolation and hysteria in this music. A powerful experience.

Strongest recommendation.

TT=79'46"

Scott Morrison

Constant Lambert: Piano Concerto; Romeo and Juliet; The Bird Actors; etc.

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A Remarkable Composer

Constant Lambert: Piano Concerto; Romeo and Juliet; The Bird Actors; etc.

Manufacturer: Hyperion UK
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Ballets | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

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Constant Lambert: Piano Concerto & Sonata; Li-Po Poems; Mr. Bear Squash-you-all-flat
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Osvaldo Golijov: Ainadamar

ASIN: B000A17GNI
Release Date: 2005-09-13

Tracks:

I. First Tableau Rondino (The Dancers Arrive Late For Class)
II. Gavotte And Trio (Women's Dance)
III. Scherzetto (Men's Dance)
IV. Siciliana (The Professor Teaches A Pas De Deux)
V. Sonatina (The Lovers Are Separated)
Second Tableau Entr'acte (The Stage Is Prepared)
VI. Sinfonia (Romeo And Juliet Meet At The Ball)
VII. Alla Marcia (The Nurse And The Servant)
VIII. Toccata (The Duel Between Romeo And Tybalt)
IX. Musette (The Balcony Scene)
X. Burlesca (Paris Enters, Searching For Juliet)
XI. Adagietto (The Death Of Juliet)
XII. Fiinale: Presto (The Curtain Falls)
Elegia Blues (In Memory Of Florence Mills)
Allegro Risoluto
Presto-
Andante-
Allegro
The Bird Actors (Overture)
Prize Fight (Ballet In One Act)

Customer Reviews:

A Remarkable Composer.......2006-12-22

I was unfamiliar with the music of Constant Lambert until I read a review in Gramophone of this disc. At the outset, Lambert's music is tuneful and beautifully orchestrated, displaying his precocious talent since four of the works on this disc were written before he was 21 years old.

Constant Lambert was a composer (a pupil of Vaughan Williams), conductor, broadcaster and critic. In the opinion of William Walton he was the best reciter of Façade he had heard. Romeo and Juliet was written for Serge Diaghilev in 1926. Compared to the ballet by Prokofiev, Lambert's is a free treatment of the story, in two tableaux, essentially a ballet within a ballet. The first tableaux begins in a ballet classroom with the corps de ballet dancing minus principles who arrive late. The second tableaux is a rehearsal of scenes from Romeo and Juliet including the first meeting between the lovers, the duel between Romeo and Tybalt, the balcony scene and the death of Juliet. The ballet is performed with spectators looking on who enthusiastically applaud at the end. The staging dismayed both audiences and critics but the music is loaded with charming dances and beautiful melodies.

The Elegiac Blues was composed when Lambert was just 22 and was performed in 1928. It begins with a blues melody that is at once seductive and develops slowly building instrument by instrument before becoming quiet. The short piece was written in memory of Florence Mills, a singer-dancer in a jazz band known as The Blackbirds.

The Piano Concerto is a wonderful work from 1924 that is stunning in its maturity and originality. It is cast in four movements that are played without break. The score survived only as a two piano score until Jonathan Plowright (who performs the concerto on this disc) took up the concerto in 1988; the orchestration was indicated in the score and was realized by Edward Shipley and Giles Easterbrook. The concerto dazzles with a brilliant and demanding part for the soloist.

The Bird Actors is an overture that had been incorporated in Romeo and Juliet but was removed and rescored in its present form. Prize Fight is a short ballet influenced by Eric Satie and unperformed until 1969. The ballet follows the outline of a boxing match and is scored for a small orchestra. The music is nicely descriptive, including a bell to signify the start and end of a round. The tune "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" is included.

Altogether this is a marvelous introduction to the music of Constant Lambert. If you like the innovative music of Les Six you will probably like the wit and satire that Lambert incorporates in his music.

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Moiseiwitsch: Grieg Piano Concerto

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

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Moiseiwitsch Plays Rachmaninov, Medtner, Kabalevsky, Khachaturian
Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Delius: Piano Concerto; Ravel: Jeux d'eau; Debussy: Clair de lune

ASIN: B000067UM4
Release Date: 2002-07-16

Tracks:

Fantasia On Hungarian Folk Themes
Andante Sostenuto - Molto Animato
Allegro Scherzando
Presto
Allegro Molto Moderato
Adagio
Allegro Moderato Molto E Marcato

Delius: Piano Concerto; Ravel: Jeux d'eau; Debussy: Clair de lune

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A great Russian pianist of former times.
This series continues and adds a real rarity

Delius: Piano Concerto; Ravel: Jeux d'eau; Debussy: Clair de lune

Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Similar Items:

Moiseiwitsch Plays Rachmaninov, Medtner, Kabalevsky, Khachaturian
Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2, Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Great Pianists: Moiseiwitsch 2
Moiseiwitsch: Grieg Piano Concerto

ASIN: B00007DWLO
Release Date: 2003-01-21

Customer Reviews:

A great Russian pianist of former times........2003-07-02

Unlike Artur Schnabel, who scorned the giving of encores at his recitals, Benno Moiseiwitsch was very generous in providing delectable extras at the end of his recitals. I can remember such recitals, the delight that Moiseiwitsch took in sharing favorite miniatures with his audience and, in particular, Moiseiwitsh as soloist in the best performance I have ever heard of Beethoven's Emperor Concerto.

This concerto is not heard here, but there is a sympathetic and lyrical performance of the rarely heard Delius Piano Concerto. The rest of the program comprises a cosmopolitan and interesting collection of smaller recital pieces, recorded between 1925 and 1950. Listen to the slightly abridged performance of Godowsky's "Die Fledermaus" concert paraphrase and you'll think you are listening to several pianists and several pianolas at work. I especially like the cultured, controlled performance of Debussy's "Clair de lune". Audio quality, sometimes of demonstration quality at the time the recordings were first issued, is top class in this Ward Marston restoration. Sometimes more surface noise is heard than in other reissues of these items, but that makes me feel (and believe) that I am hearing a full reproduction of the original recording. This is the sixth Moiseiwitsch CD in a Naxos "Great Pianists" series, a series I can heartily recommend.

This series continues and adds a real rarity.......2003-02-25

This is the sixth of the Moisewitsch reissues on Naxos. It contains mostly short pieces often played by him as encores. This release contains a couple of high points, for me. The Ravel 'Jeux d'eaux,' while not one of my favorite pieces, is played to a fare-the-well here by Moisewitsch.

By far the most interesting thing here is the Delius Piano Concerto with Constant Lambert conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra, recorded in 1946. First of all, the Delius is a rarity in itself. Second, Moisewitsch, who championed this concerto throughout his career, plays it lovingly and makes as much as can be made of this admittedly somewhat loosely constructed piece. And if you're a Delius fan - and you know who you are - you must have this performance.

Tracks:

1. Allegro Vigoroso/Allegro Lirico - Emma Johnson
2. Adagio - Emma Johnson
3. Rondo/Allegro Giocoso - Emma Johnson
1. Rondo Pastorale - Ruth Bolister
2. Minuet & Musette - Ruth Bolister
3. Finale (Scherzo) - Ruth Bolister
1. Moderato - Kate Hill
2. Adagio - Kate Hill
3. Allegro - Kate Hill
1. Allegro Molto - Jill Crowther
2. Adagio - Jill Crowther
3. Allegro Con Brio - Jill Crowther

Tracks:

1. Allegro - Emma Johnson
2. Andante Con Moto - Emma Johnson
3. Allegro Con Fuoco - Emma Johnson
1. Allegro Moderato - Emma Johnson
2. Andante Con Moto Quasi Ma Piu Tranquillo - Emma Johnson
3. Tempo 1/Allegro Moderato - Emma Johnson
Andante Sostenuto - Ian Scott
1. Moderato - Graham Salvage
2. Quasi Blues - Graham Salvage
3. Giocoso - Graham Salvage

Tracks:

1. Allegro Moderato - Ruth Bolster
2. Andante Con Moto - Ruth Bolster
3. Allegro Vivace - Ruth Bolster
1. Allegro Moderato - Jennifer Stinton
2. Lento - Jennifer Stinton
3. Alla Gavotta - Jennifer Stinton
4. Allegro Molto - Jennifer Stinton
1. Preludio (Allegro Deciso) - The Fibonacci Sequence
2. Andante Poco Doloroso - The Fibonacci Sequence
3. Allegro Molto Ritmico - The Fibonacci Sequence
4. Lento Sostenuto - The Fibonacci Sequence
1. Largo Sostenuto/Allegro Molto/Largo Sostenuto - John Turner
2. Scherzo (Presto E Precipitoso) - John Turner
3. Elegy (Adagio E Sostenuto) - John Turner

Tracks:

1. Allegro Assai - Christiane Edinger
2. Adagio (Calma) - Christiane Edinger
3. Allegro Con Brio - Christiane Edinger
Concerto For Saxophone And Orchestra 'On Hungerford Bridge' - John Harle
1. Allegro Risoluto - David Owen Norris
2. Presto - David Owen Norris
3. Andante - David Owen Norris
4. Allegro - David Owen Norris

Tracks:

1. Allegro Vivace - Emma Johnson
2. Lento - Emma Johnson
3. (The Pre-Goodman Rag) Allegro Non Troppo - Emma Johnson
1. Molto Moderato Ma Con Moto - Jill Crowther
2. Lento Molto - Jill Crowther
3. Allegro Molto E Scherzoso - Jill Crowther
1. Allegro Poco Moderato - James Watson
2. Lento Moderato - James Watson
3. Vivace - James Watson
1. Allegro Vivace - Graham Salvage
2. Grave E Molto Sostenuto - Graham Salvage
3. Con Spirito - Graham Salvage

Average customer rating:

Suprisingly good composer
'And God will save the Queen'
An Absolute Delight!

Piano Concertos 1 & 2
Rawsthorne , Donohoe , Yuasa , and Ulster Orchestra
Manufacturer: Naxos
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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4-for-3 Classical | 4-for-3 Music | Stores | Music

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Ivanovs: Symphonies Nos. 8 & 20

ASIN: B00007L2PD
Release Date: 2003-05-20

Tracks:

Capriccio: Allegro Molto
Chaconne: Andante Con Moto
Tarantella: Vivace
Improvisations On A Theme By Constant Lambert - Ulster Orchestra
Allegro Piacevole
Allegro Molto
Intermezzo: Adagio Semplice
Allegro

Customer Reviews:

Suprisingly good composer.......2007-02-18

Who says they don't write good music any more? Rawsthorne's music is quite good, lyrical, dramatic, this music should be heard.

'And God will save the Queen'.......2004-01-25

The ironic last line of the first poem in A Shropshire Lad sprang into my mind as I read the liner-note to this production, which has a strong `I'm Backing Britain' feel to it. This disc has been issued under the auspices of a project called The British Piano Concerto Foundation, and the liner material includes a short but sympathetic and enthusiastic article, by the notable and probably under-appreciated soloist Peter Donohoe, on its aims and aspirations. In general I am completely on his side here, even if he protests a little too much in saying `It is not to exploit a musical "curiosity corner". It is not merely to fill a gap in the "market place"'. I for one would certainly like to hear the piano concerto by Delius a lot more frequently than I get the chance to, and I am grateful indeed that Britten's corresponding work has come back into public awareness through receiving the distinguished countenance of Sviatoslav Richter. I wish the project well in all sincerity, although I could not help recalling the fund-raising dinner for British conductors addressed once by Beecham, at which the great man proclaimed with seeming jingoism `I don't see why we should have all these third-rate foreign conductors in this country'; and when the applause died down he added `Considering we have so many second-rate ones of our own'.

To be completely honest, it seems to me that the solo work, orchestral work and (particularly) recorded quality are only just borderline -5*. Nevertheless it also seems to me to be rank ingratitude to all concerned, particularly including Naxos, not to do any little I can to support the venture by first buying the record and second giving it the best rating I can. Whether it counts as a `curiosity corner' or not, there is some very interesting and attractive music here. I have known Rawsthorne's second concerto for 50 years, but the other two works are new to me, and in general I do not hear much of his work in broadcasts or see much of it on concert programmes. It is very much `contemporary' music in the sense that Britten's music is that, although I would not consider it to be of anything like the same stature. The piano writing in the fast movements has a lot of what has been called, at least since Schumann's time, the `toccata' treatment, by that meaning a certain perpetuum-mobile etude style, which is really a downgrading of the term from the rich and varied compositions to which Bach gave the same name. The theme of the finale in the second concerto reflects a specially British musical tradition, now in decline, namely the music hall, and I was surprised to see nothing about that in the liner. The liner also mentions that the work was composed for the Festival of Britain in 1951, but again I was taken aback not to see it noted that it was written specifically for Curzon.

I suppose the author of the liner really felt bound to quote the composer's own notes on the second concerto, although I wish he hadn't as they are really a terrible dollop of old waffle featuring statements of the blindingly obvious (`The concerto opens with a melody played on the flute, with a piano accompaniment...'); meaningless condescension (`The third movement has...that nostalgic character so much disliked by the immobile intelligentsia of today, who confuse...'); and plain old programme-note padding (`This tune...provides the basis for an episodic type of composition, and for the fugato coda with which the work closes.'). There is nothing really to criticise about the disc itself, I would not say, and if my word for it counts for anything this is a record well worth recommending to music lovers interested in the lesser-known byways of the 20th century repertory.

An Absolute Delight!.......2003-06-20

This disc, from the beginning of an ongoing Naxos series devoted to British piano concertos, features the First and Second Piano Concertos of Alan Rawsthorne (1905-1971). Unfortunately, Rawsthorne isn't terrible well known in the US although I would place him at the very top of the second tier of 20th-c. British composers; in a lifetime of concert-going I've only heard one piece of his performed live, the Symphonic Studies (1939), a marvelous piece that is also available here at Amazon.

The First Concerto, composed the same year as the Symphonic Studies, is a total joy. I'm a goner for composers with wit, and in this piece Rawsthorne displays it in his thematic material, orchestration and rhythms: a 20th-century Haydn. In fact, the piece is the epitome of a neo-classic divertimento. The three movements are Capriccio, Chaconne and Tarantella. The terms 'capriccio' and 'tarantella' certain imply a light-heartedness, and they don't disappoint on that score. The Chaconne is based on a wry ground bass and although it's a slow movement - andante con moto - it, too, gets in some witticisms. Peter Donohoe, one of Britain's finest pianists, is superb throughout, both here and in the Second Concerto. And he is given sensitive support by the fine Ulster Orchestra under Takuo Yuasa.

The second piece on the disc is a set of variations (or 'Improvisations') on a theme by Rawsthorne's friend, Constant Lambert (another of those high-ranked second-tier composers I mentioned). Rawsthorne had helped orchestrate Lambert's ballet, 'Tiresias,' after his too-early death in 1951, and he became infatuated with the quasi-serial opening theme of that piece. (Don't worry, even though there are some occasional dodecaphonic devices used in the 'Improvisations,' one would never know it without studying the score, or reading the enclosed booklet.) The piece is, again, witty, strikingly orchestrated, charming and attractive. I've been returning to it for several weeks now and it does not pall.

Finally, the Second Concerto (also from 1951, and written for the Festival of Britain which had spawned a good deal of worthy music such as Benjamin Frankel's lovely violin concerto recorded not long ago on the cpo label) is a four-movement work. Movement I is an affable Moderato, II a vigorous, sometimes violent Scherzo with lots of pianistic glitter, III a melancholy, almost regretful, Intermezzo marked Adagio semplice with a lighter middle section, and IV a rumbustious Allegro with jazzy rhythms and harmonies as well as Prokofievan harmonic side-slips. The whole thing is a showpiece for both piano and orchestra. In this recording one can almost see the musicians grinning at each other, particularly in the hellbent-for-leather last movement.

Bring on some more Rawthorne, Naxos! And keep the British piano concerti coming, too! Off the top of my head I would nominate consideration for those of Rubbra, Britten, Ireland, Foulds, Delius, Alwyn and Tippett. How about it?

A hearty recommendation for this release.