Mendelssohn Symphony No. 3, Schumann Piano Concerto Joao Pires, Gardiner (lso, 24 96).part3

This release from the London Symphony Orchestra's LSO Live series features a program that the orchestra must have played hundreds of times over its long history: Mendelssohn's well-loved Symphony No. 3 in A minor, Op. 56 ("Scottish"), and Hebrides Overture, Op. 26, with the Schumann Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54, in between. There are substantial attractions, but they don't necessarily come where some think they might. What truly sets this recording apart is the extraordinarily graceful performance of the Schumann by Portuguese (and now Brazilian) pianist Maria João Pires, with the LSO keeping itself carefully subordinated to her unusually quiet performance.

At a time when Schoenberg and Stravinsky were thought of as opposite poles, Roberto Gerhard was combining the density of the one with the dynamism of the other in a wholly personal synthesis. You can hear this in the Piano Concerto's mood swings from the dark and brooding to, in the finale, a Spanish take-off that Chabrier would have thought off the wall. Gerhard's 1960s music is in-your-face modernism that holds you in its grasp, embracing sound with an enthusiasm that remains inspirational today. Listen to the tape part of the Third Symphony–a cut-and-paste job that trounces most of the computer-music generation in its imagination and feeling for what's possible. Epithalamion features material originally intended for, of all things, Lindsay Anderson's film This Sporting Life. Not that its impact is any less than coherent; the percussion writing alone has a fantasy that will keep you entranced. Well prepared performances, superbly recorded. This is still music of the future.

Reference Recordings proudly presents two new works from leading American composer Jonathan Leshnoff. Distinguished by The New York Times as “a leader of contemporary American lyricism,” Leshnoff is renowned for his music's striking harmonies, structural complexity, and powerful themes. These world premiere recordings showcase the Kansas City Symphony performing his third symphony, inspired by World War I letters home, with texts sung by baritone Stephen Powell. It is coupled with Leshnoff ’s new and exciting piano concerto, dedicated to and performed by pianist Joyce Yang. This is the eighth album in Reference Recordings’ series with Kansas City Symphony.