Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra

This 58th volume of the Romantic Piano Concerto series presents two composer-pianists who contributed to Liszt’s piano extravaganza Hexaméron (1837).

Thalberg (who would be celebrating his 200th birthday in 2012) famously took part in a pianistic ‘duel’ with Liszt, and was popularly acclaimed as the greatest pianist in the world during his lifetime. He only wrote one piano concerto, and that in his teens, but it is a brilliantly effective showpiece for virtuosity and stamina, the pianist’s hands barely leaving the piano. Johann Peter Pixis has now been consigned—perhaps unfairly—to the oblivion where so many early 19th-century composers dwell. These are world premiere recordings of his charming Piano Concerto and Piano Concertino.

Howard Shelley, undisputed master of the music of the early Romantic period, directs the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra from the keyboard with his usual insouciance and poise.

The Romantic Piano Concerto series continues to surprise and delight with a 51st disc of 19th-century pianistic splendour. This new releases includes the two piano concertos by Wilhelm Taubert, as well as one of the two works for piano and orchestra by Jacob Rosenhain. Both composers were near exact contemporaries with Mendelssohn (born 1809), Chopin and Schumann (both 1810), Liszt (1811) and Wagner and Verdi (1813).

Taubert’s A major Concerto was described by Schumann as ‘one of the best’ – he also noted the parallels between it and Mendelssohn’s Op 25. But these similarities, however, do not negate the marvellous and distinctive music contained within Taubert’s Concerto. Nearly half a century separates Taubert’s first concerto and his Piano Concerto No 2 in A major Op 189 (c1874), and the second concerto reflects developments in the areas of harmonic expansion, cyclic development, and, of course, increased virtuosity.

Rosenhain wrote two concerted for works for piano and orchestra, an the A minor Concertino Op 30 (probably written in the 1840s, though published later), and the work included on this disc, the Piano Concerto in D minor Op 73. This work is fairly conservative in its form, offering little that had not been heard before. Still, there is much gorgeous and masterful music within its traditional three-movement form.

Howard Shelley directs the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra from the piano; a partnership that has garnered the highest praise for their previous Hyperion recordings.

With Volume 48 of our groundbreaking Romantic Piano Concerto series we reach very uncharted territory indeed. Sir Julius Benedict has been all but forgotten today but he is yet another composer who gives the lie to the idea that Britain was ‘a land without music’ in the nineteenth century. Though born in Germany, Benedict settled in London in 1835, having already established a career as composer and pianist on the continent. He arrived in a city which had been the pianistic centre of Europe for the previous thirty years (though that role was shortly thereafter lost to Paris and the new generation of Romantic composers we remember today) and was soon performing his two concertinos in A flat and E flat, the latter work later being expanded into the E flat concerto recorded here. The C minor concerto was to follow in 1850. Both works are very much in the tradition of Hummel, of whom Benedict was a pupil, and combine brilliant virtuosity with an easy lyricism.

The even-more-forgotten Walter Macfarren was the brother of better-known George, an early Principal of the Royal Academy of Music. Walter was for many years a piano professor there, his pupils including Matthay and Henry Wood. His music is very much in the style of Mendelssohn and his Concertstück proves to be a very attractive work which could easily pass as one by the greater master.

Hyperion’s Record of the Month for June sees the thirty-fifth release in our award-winning Romantic Piano Concerto series, and three première recordings of concertos by Henri Herz. Over the years Herz has had a very bad press, a situation begun through the writings of Robert Schumann and continued ever since, yet in his day – and this was primarily in the early part of his life – his music outsold all rivals, and his tours, particularly as the first major pianist to visit the USA, brought him huge success. This dichotomy is easily explained: Herz never tried to be a ‘great’ artist, though he was often judged against such criteria; he was an entertainer. Of course the concerto lends itself perfectly to this role and his eight concertos are full of charm, almost operatic melody and scintillating virtuosity, their model is Hummel, though in the later works Herz put less emphasis on virtuosity and more on lyricism. If we can accept that music need not be profound to be enjoyed we should welcome this revival of these works, the pop music of their time. Needless to say Howard Shelley, who has made such exceptional recordings of the concertos of Hummel and Moscheles, is just the man for the job. He will follow up this recording with a second disc of Herz next year.

Ewa Kupiec brings her expertise to Chopin’s Piano Concertos.

She is ably accompanied by the highly regarded Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Tall Poppies is delighted to present this CD of Australian orchestral works that might very well have slipped from view forever but for the archives of its composer, Bruce Cale. He has retained high quality copies of these works since their performances, and these recordings have been mastered to create this first release of Cale’s excellent compositions.

That they sound so well is also a tribute to the original ABC engineers.

Bruce Cale is possibly best known in Australia as a brilliant jazz bassist who has worked with all of Australia’s jazz luminaries. His work with the Bruce Cale Quartet represented one of the peaks of Australian jazz performance and is remembered in an archival recording released by Tall Poppies (TP175) last year to great acclaim. Cale is also a composer with a wide-ranging oeuvre who studied with George Russell in the US in 1981. Russell says of Cale:

“Bruce Cale is a marvellously imaginative, compelling musician. I have followed his work over several decades, and have observed with pleasure his evolution. Informed by the great nature of his native Australia, his compositions are lyrical and elegant. His use of the harmonic palette is uniquely his own, and draws on his early training as a jazz musician. He is unafraid of beauty; his work is thrilling in its complexity and scope. If I have had any affect on Mr. Cale’s work, I am humbled. He has become a distinguished composer of his generation, and I look forward to his continued contributions.”

Teddy Tahu Rhodes is one of the most sought-after bass-baritones in the world and is acclaimed by audiences and critics alike. This CD is a collection of highlights from his ten releases for ABC Classics.

"Endling" was commissioned for the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and describes the ‘last surviving individual of a species or plant’. The Violin Concerto features the 2002 BBC Young Musician of the Year, Jennifer Pike. There is an article on her in the March issue of Classic FM Magazine. The works are a synthesis of Schultz’s approach, bittersweet and lyrical with moments of soaring splendour.