Romantic Piano Concerto

Stephen Hough - Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos (Romantic Piano Concerto, Vol. 17) (1997)

Stephen Hough - Mendelssohn: Piano Concertos (Romantic Piano Concerto, Vol. 17) (1997)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 75:13 | 323 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Hyperion | Catalog: CDA66969

With Stephen Hough's Mendelssohn we enter a new dimension. The soft, stylish arpeggios that open the first work here, the Capriccio brillant, announce something special. But this is just a preparation for the First Concerto. Here again, 'stylish' is the word. One can sense the background – especially the operatic background against which these works were composed. The first solo doesn't simply storm away, fortissimo; one hears distinct emotional traits: the imperious, thundering octaves, the agitated semiquavers, the pleading appoggiaturas.
Markus Becker, Thierry Fischer - The Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto, Vol. 55 - Widor: Piano Concertos (2011)

Markus Becker, Thierry Fischer - The Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto, Vol. 55 - Widor: Piano Concertos (2011)
EAC | FLAC (log,tracks+cue) -> 265 Mb (5% Rec.) | Scans (covers+d.booklet) included
Classical | Label: Hyperion Records, CDA67817 | 2011 | 01:11:37

Charles-Marie Widor was born in Lyon to a family of organ builders and consequently became an organist of great skill and an assistant to Camille Saint-Saëns at La Madeleine in Paris at the age of twenty-four. Today, Widor's compositions for organ have a prominent position in the instrument's core repertoire, but it is often forgotten that the composer wrote many other significant works, notably his two piano concertos.
Artur Pizarro, Martyn Brabbins - The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 24: José Vianna da Motta: Piano Concerto (2000)

Artur Pizarro, Martyn Brabbins, Orquestra Gulbenkian - The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 24: José Vianna da Motta: Piano Concerto (2000)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & no Log) ~ 232 Mb | Total time: 64:24 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA67163 | Recorded: 1999

For Volume 24 of 'The Romantic Piano Concerto' Hyperion went to Portugal to celebrate one of the country's greatest musical sons. José Vianna da Motta, if he is remembered at all, is primarily known as a very fine pianist. He was one of Liszt's last pupils, became a friend of Busoni, and left a small body of very impressive 78rpm recordings. After many years based in Berlin he returned to his country of birth as director of the Lisbon conservatory and became central to the musical life of the country. And like many other performers of the day, he also composed.
Piers Lane, Bergen PO, Andrew Litton - Eyvind Alnaes & Christian Sinding: Piano Concertos (2007)

The Romantic Piano Concerto, Vol. 42: Eyvind Alnæs & Christian Sinding (2007)
Piers Lane, piano; Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra; Andrew Litton, conductor

EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue&Log) ~ 233 Mb | Mp3 (CBR320) ~ 152 Mb | Artwork included
Genre: Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA67555 | Time: 01:05:10

You're going to love this disc. It does everything this wonderful series of "Romantic Piano Concertos" is supposed to: present captivating repertoire in excellent performances. Christian Sinding was a notoriously spotty composer when working in large forms. After all, if you live well into your 80s writing tons of music along the way, but remain famous for one three-minute piano miniature ("Rustle of Spring"), then something's not right. That said, this youthful concerto offsets its tendency to ramble with an abundance of fresh, enjoyable tunes and fistfuls of pianistic fun and games. When the melodies are so attractive it's impossible to deny Sinding his right to dwell on them at length.
Martin Roscoe, Martyn Brabbins - The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 20: Ignaz Brüll: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 (1999)

Martin Roscoe, Martyn Brabbins, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra - The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 20: Ignaz Brüll: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 (1999)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & no Log) ~ 288 Mb | Total time: 72:57 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA67069 | Recorded: 1998

Volume 20 of our Romantic Piano Concerto series features Ignaz Brüll's two Piano Concertos and the Andante and Allegro, Op 88. The first of the concertos was amazingly composed when Brüll was just 15, the second when he was 22.
Marc-André Hamelin, Mark Elder - The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 22: Ferruccio Busoni: Piano Concerto (1999)

Marc-André Hamelin, Mark Elder, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra - The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 22: Ferruccio Busoni: Piano Concerto (1999)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 302 Mb | Total time: 73:48 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA67143 | Recorded: 1999

The Busoni concerto, with its five movements, choral finale and a length of over 70 minutes, is surely the most grandiose ever written. But this is no over-ambitious monster; Busoni was one of the greatest pianists the world has known, but he was also a great intellectual with very strong views on art and culture. This work is the masterpiece of his middle years, more of a symphony in the breadth and scope of its ideas, but at the same time almost casually requiring the most formidable technical ability from the soloist. There is no doubt that this is one of music's major neglected masterpieces.
Jonathan Plowright, Martyn Brabbins - The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 28: Zygmunt Stojowski: Piano Concerto (2002)

Jonathan Plowright, Martyn Brabbins, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra - The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 28: Zygmunt Stojowski: Piano Concerto (2002)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 275 Mb | Total time: 68:12 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA67314 | Recorded: 2001

Stojowski was born and brought up in Poland though he later lived in Paris and finally became an American citizen. He was both virtuoso pianist and serious composer (he wrote a symphony and violin concerto as well as music for his own instrument) and his initial career was full of promise. Unfortunately for his later reputation his style was that of a previous generation and in the 20th century his music was viewed as increasingly dated. One hundred years later this hardly matters and on this CD we find works steeped in the language of Tchaikovsky and Grieg, perhaps with a hint of Saint-Saëns and the almost sentimental lyricism of Paderewski (ten years Stojowski's senior, Paderewski was both teacher and friend to the younger composer, the second concerto was dedicated to, and played by him).
Howard Shelley, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra - Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 32: Moscheles: Piano Concertos Nos 1, 6, 7 (2003)

Howard Shelley, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra - The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 32: Ignaz Moscheles: Piano Concertos Nos 1, 6 & 7 (2003)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & Log) ~ 259 Mb | Total time: 61:49 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA67385 | Recorded: 1999

The continuation of our survey of Moscheles piano concertos brings us to three works which have never been recorded before. The 1st Concerto, written in 1819, is a very Mozartean affair; though the young composer had become a friend of Beethoven it seems the example of that composer's last three concertos hadn't been followed, instead we have a work full of charm, grace and untroubled lyrical melody.
Artur Pizarro, Martyn Brabbins - The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 64: Oswald & Napoleão: Piano Concertos (2014)

Artur Pizarro, Martyn Brabbins, BBC National Orchestra of Wales - The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 64: Oswald & Napoleão: Piano Concertos (2014)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & no Log) ~ 255 Mb | Total time: 67:11 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA67984 | Recorded: 2013

Portuguese virtuoso Artur Pizarro makes a welcome return to the Romantic Piano Concerto series with the outpourings of two brilliant pianist-composers. Their names may not be familiar to listeners today. The Brazilian Henrique Oswald and the Portuguese Alfredo Napoleão were born in the same year, less than three months apart, when Schumann, Brahms and Liszt were alive and Chopin recently deceased. Both were of mixed European heritage: Oswald with a Swiss-German father and Italian mother, Napoleão with an Italian father and Portuguese mother. Both were child prodigies who became widely travelled concert pianists, pedagogues and composers. In 1868 Oswald gave his ‘farewell recital’ and left Rio de Janeiro to study in Europe; Napoleão went to Brazil.
Piers Lane, Alun Francis - The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 9: Eugen d'Albert: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 (1994)

Piers Lane, Alun Francis, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra - The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol. 9: Eugen d'Albert: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 (1994)
EAC | FLAC | Image (Cue & no Log) ~ 241 Mb | Total time: 65:39 | Scans included
Classical | Label: Hyperion | # CDA66747 | Recorded: 1994

When d’Albert appeared in 1881 at one of Hans Richter’s concerts in London he played his own Piano Concerto in A, but the work was never published and has not survived. However, from a review in The Musical Times of November 1881 we can reasonably deduce that the Concerto had the traditional three movements. The reviewer stated that it was ‘uncompromising in its pretensions to rank with the chief of its kind; largely developed, ambitious in style and character, and rigidly observant of classical form, while redundant in matter’.