York Bowen Concerti!

[general disarray]

I understand Hyperion has released performances of Bowen's 3rd and 4th piano concerti with Danny Driver and Brabbins conducting the Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Anyone heard them?  What's the word?

I love Bowen.

So did Sorabji.

What about Hinton?

p.s. is Danny Driver related to Minnie Driver?

[thalbergmad]

Well, the 4th would be my favourite out of the Bowen Concerti and definately preferable to the less substantial 3rd.

I think Bowen has not completely unjustly inherited an "English Rachmaninoff" tag and there are sections of the 4th concerto where i found it difficult not to imagine Rachmaninoff. It has the kind of lyricism that instantly pleases my Romantically tuned brain.

This is an astounding edition from a superb label and it should be in every pianists Christmas stocking.

If Sorabji loved it, who am i to argue.

Thal

[ahinton]

Well, the 4th would be my favourite out of the Bowen Concerti and definately preferable to the less substantial 3rd.

I think Bowen has not completely unjustly inherited an "English Rachmaninoff" tag and there are sections of the 4th concerto where i found it difficult not to imagine Rachmaninoff. It has the kind of lyricism that instantly pleases my Romantically tuned brain.

This is an astounding edition from a superb label and it should be in every pianists Christmas stocking.

If Sorabji loved it, who am i to argue.

Thal

I agree that Bowen's Fourth Piano Concerto rather outstrips its immediate predecessor but I am also delighted that Hyperion have drawn the attention that they have to Bowen's work as a whole. This "English Rakhmaninov" tag is a tad embarrassing, really (and it's equally been applied to another English composer who is not so well known for piano writing but who remains alive - I write of Richard Arnell who, at 91, is probably not composing any more but whose Third Symphony attracted that particular description long before it was applied to the even less well known Bowen) - but I think that both Bowen and Arnell can survive it, just as Rakhmaninov himself can and will emerge from the dubbing intact.

Sorabji adored Rakhmaninov and was one of his most ardent supporters, even publishing an essay deriding and despairing of the venomous critical abuse that was often heaped upon Rakhmaninov during his last years and which took the profoundly unpleasant form of setting him up as the universally accepted pianistic hero of his day only to knock him down as a composer who had nothing left to say but still continued to say it from time to time whenever a new work of his was premièred. That this kind of activity was thoroughly disgusting in its own right was surely only made worse by the fact that Rakhmaninov fel able to compose very few works during the last quarter century of his life, only to find these little journalists biting at his heels each time one was released; if I could have written a work of the order of his Symphonic Dances and had critics responding that I had nothing left to say but kept on saying it, I would still have been more proud than I can tell you - and stuff the critics...

Best,

Alistair

[cmg]

Well, I've heard the Bowen Fourth Concerto recording on Hyperion and it's a sizzler.  Sorbaji's praise of it isn't an exaggeration.  It's a staggeringly beautiful piece with enough profundity for 20 English composers.  I can't recommend it enough.  The Third, as mentioned above, is not in the same league, but it's an attractive piece well worth hearing.

In the Christmas haul that brought me the Bowen, I also got the Hyperion Stenhammar solo piano disc with pianist Martin Sturfalt and what a pianist he is!  I love the two Stenhammar sonatas -- the first is Brahmsian/Schumanesque and virtuosic as all hell.  The second is a revelation:  obviously influenced by Beethoven op. 101, it's a wonderfully original work. Well worth playing, I would think.

God love Hyperion and bless their label.  Where on earth would us rarity-lovers be without them?

[thalbergmad]

Indeed, God bless Hyperion.

I look forward to the Draeseke release with even more relish than the Bowen.

Thal

[argerichfan]

Indeed, God bless Hyperion.

And wishing them a prosperous 2009.  Hats off, gentlemen!

Edit: would you possibly have the Draeseke scores when the recording comes out?  They aren't on IMSLP. 

[thalbergmad]

I have got the score old chap, but not copied it as amazingly it is still in print.

Available cheaply from Jugen Hoflich if memory serves.

Thal