Stanford – Music for Piano & Orchestra – Finghin Collins, Kenneth Montgomery (2010)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 01:05:38 minutes | 579 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Master, Official Digital Download – Source: Q0buz | © Claves Records
Do you know Charles Villiers Stanford? If not; here is a wonderful opportunity to fill this gap: Irish pianist Finghin Collins (author of several Claves albums; among which volumes 1 and 3 of the Schumann collection) and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra co-sign with the Swiss label a magnificent recording completely dedicated to this …. Irish composer!
Son of a protestant lawyer; Stanford went to Queen’s College in Cambridge and Trinity College; Dublin; then left for Leipzig to study with Reinecke and Kiel. Most of his life and work were associated with Cambridge; where he was a prominent actor of the University Music Society; and with London’s Royal College of Music; where he taught composition right from the opening of the establishment in 1883. He is to be thanked for the first English auditions of numerous Romantic masterpieces – such as Brahms’ First Symphony in 1877 – and for highly original symphonic arrangements of Hymns for the Anglican liturgy.
Among his own productions; « The Revenge » – a choral ballad written for the Leeds Festival – remained an absolute favourite with British choirs for many years. Featured on Finghin Collins’s CD; his 2nd Piano Concerto also dates from the 1910 Leeds Festival; where Sergueï Rachmaninov interpreted his 2nd Concerto himself. The work is dedicated to Ukranian pianist Moritz Rosenthal. The Concert Variations upon an English Theme “Down Among the Dead Men”; on the other hand; date from 1898 and were written for Leonard Borwick; an English pianist and former pupil of Clara Schumann.
Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924), known for his choral music if at all, was celebrated in his own time for instrumental music and opera as well. The Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 126, recorded here earned him an invitation to conduct the work in the U.S., from non other than the dean of American musical academia, Yale professor and Charles Ives tormentor Horatio Parker. Stanford had to cancel, having booked seats on the Lusitania. At the time, a concerto modeled closely on Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2, in the identical key of C minor, must have seemed a great idea on the theory that if some is good, more must be better. Later generations found the original item superior, but Stanford’s concerto is worth a re-hearing in this beautifully executed version by Irish pianist Finghin Collins, who gave the work’s belated BBC Proms premiere in 2008. He joins the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra under Kenneth Montgomery in a performance that brings out the remarkable filigreed textures, in the first movement, with tough left-hand figuration in the piano remaining perfectly clear as the winds and brasses add counterpoint above. The mood and the technique are pure Rachmaninov, although the harmony reflects a bit more of the Germanic-British axis. More characteristically British are the Concert Variations Upon an English Theme, “Down Among the Dead Men,” in C minor, Op. 71. This gloomy tune is actually a drinking song; “dead men” are empty bottles lying on the floor. The song has a bitter tinge that is effectively set off by the methodically derived variations Stanford constructs upon it. With impressively transparent sound from the engineers of Switzerland’s Claves label, working in Dublin’s modest-sized National Concert Hall, this is a release that will appeal to those interested in the British scene of the early 20th century. –AllMusic Review by James Manheim
Tracklist:
Charles Villiers Stanford
Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 126
1 1. Allegro moderato 15:56
2 2. Adagio molto 12:53
3 3. Allegro molto 10:12
Concert variations upon an English theme “Down among the Dead Men” in C minor, Op. 71
4 Introduction. Lento – Allegro moderato 1:31
5 Thema. Allegro vivace 0:35
6 Variation 1. Tranquillo 0:54
7 Variation 2. Poco più moto 1:01
8 Variation 3. Poco meno mosso 1:40
9 Variation 4. Presto 0:41
10 Variation 5. 0:54
11 Variation 6. 1:32
12 Variation 7. Intermezzo 2:20
13 Variation 8. Andante tranquillo 2:04
14 Variation 9. 2:14
15 Variation 10. Allegro con fuoco 0:49
16 Variation 11. Lento 3:17
17 Variation 12. Finale. Allegro moderato e deciso 7:04
Personnel:
Finghin Collins, piano
RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra
Kenneth Montgomery, conductor
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