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Godard - Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2, Introduction & Allegro

£13.60

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Label: Hyperion - Romantic Piano Concertos

Cat No: CDA68043

Barcode: 0034571280431

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Orchestral

Release Date: 30th June 2014

Works

Godard, Benjamin

Introduction et Allegro pour piano et orchestre, op.49
Piano Concerto no.1 in A minor, op.31
Piano Concerto no.2, op.148

Artists

Howard Shelley (piano)
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra

Conductor

Howard Shelley

Works

Godard, Benjamin

Introduction et Allegro pour piano et orchestre, op.49
Piano Concerto no.1 in A minor, op.31
Piano Concerto no.2, op.148

Artists

Howard Shelley (piano)
Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra

Conductor

Howard Shelley

About

Howard Shelley directs the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra from the piano in this latest volume of The Romantic Piano Concerto series. As ever, they perform unknown music with consummate style and deep understanding, making the best possible case for the works.

We have reached Volume 63 and the works of French composer Benjamin Godard, a figure who is almost totally forgotten today. He is described by Jeremy Nicholas in his booklet note as ‘a composer who combines the sentimental melodic appeal of Massenet with the fecundity and technical facility of Saint-Saëns’.

Among Godard’s oeuvre, well over seventy opus numbers are devoted to works for solo piano, ranging from Les contes de Perrault Op.6, to Valse No.15 Op.153. Much of the enormous amount of music he produced followed in the tradition of Mendelssohn and Schumann (his admiration for the latter inspired a string quartet arrangement of Kinderszenen in 1876).

With the emergence of more innovative composers, Godard’s conservative idiom meant his reputation faded before his early death in Cannes on 10 January 1895. However, in the three works presented here his writing for the piano exceeds the technical range of his two idols, and is often reminiscent of the bravura demands found in the concertos of Liszt and Rubinstein.

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The Europadisc Review

Thanks to pioneering producers and pianists from the 1950s onwards, it's long been known that the world of the nineteenth-century Romantic piano concerto extends beyond the 'usual suspects': beyond Brahms, Chopin, Grieg, Liszt, Rachmaninov, Schumann, and Tchaikovsky's First. Yet the extent of that awareness has been raised to new levels by Hyperion's ongoing series, The Romantic Piano Concerto. Incredibly, this has now reached its sixty-third instalment and, thanks to the technical accomplishment and sheer dedication of the artists and recording teams taking part, there is still no sense that the bottom of the barrel is anywhere near being scraped. This series deserves to take its place alongside such other great recording projects as the Solti Ring, the Harnoncourt/Leonhardt Bach Cantatas, EMI's The Record of Singing, Christopher Hogwood's Mozart Symphonies, Scott Ross's Scarlatti Sonatas, BIS's Sibelius Edition, and indeed Hyperion's own Complete Schubert Songs.

This latest disc features the two piano concertos of the French composer Benjamin Godard (1849–1895), whose vast output of operatic, vocal, orchestral and instrumental works was until recently all but forgotten, the exception being the tender Berceuse from his 1888 opera Jocelyn which has enjoyed numerous celebrity recordings over the years, including a famous one by Bing Crosby and Jascha Heifetz, no less. Godard's piano concertos are thoroughly engaging works, his music evoking the youthful inventiveness of Mendelssohn combined with features of the French style of Massenet and Saint-Saëns: altogether a delightful mixture. Both concertos are cast in four movements, with imposing outer movements full of pianistic bravado and French delicacy, mercurial Scherzos, and tenderly lyrical slow movements. Godard may have rejected Wagnerian weightiness for a lighter Gallic touch, but the piano parts are still challenging. Howard Shelley and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra – who have already recorded a number of successful discs together in this series – rise splendidly to the occasion, with Shelley directing the orchestra from the keyboard (no mean feat when the pianist is already given plenty to be occupied with!). The performances are by turns scintillating and sensitive, bringing out all the character of Godard's writing, and they are sure to earn this composer many new admirers. A considerable bonus is the Introduction and Allegro, Op. 49, which moves from lyrical introspection to a deliciously camp up-tempo conclusion complete with faux-Slavic 'oom-cha' accompaniment. It's a wonderfully light-hearted way to end the disc

All three works have already appeared on Dutton's Epoch label, with Victor Sangiorgio and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Martin Yates. Those recordings were spread over two separate discs (coupled with some of Godard's orchestral works), in fine performances but with rather overblown sound. The greater clarity achieved by the Hyperion team, the superb artistry of Shelley and his Tasmanian orchestra, and the convenience of having all three concertante piano works together, all add up to make this latest recording a clear first choice.

Look out, too, for another new recording from Howard Shelley on Hyperion: piano concertos by Jan Ladislav Dussek, launching another new series for the label, The Classical Piano Concerto. If it's anything like as revealing as The Romantic Piano Concerto, it's sure to be immensely enjoyable.