Recording Review
Alan Rawsthorne
Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2; Improvisations on a theme by Constant Lambert
Peter Donohoe piano
Ulster Orchestra
Takuo Yuasa conductor
Naxos 8.555959
Classic FM, May 2003
by Jeremy Nicholas
Alan Rawsthorne (1905-71) is largely forgotten nowadays, though readers of a certain age will have grown up with his myriad film scores. So three cheers for that fiery virtuoso Peter Donohoe for championing his fellow Lancastrian’s two piano concerto. No. 1 (1942) is full of Waltonesque high jinks, while No.2 (1951) is darker and more difficult. They are works that need exactly the kind of rhythmic verve and precision at which Donohoe excels. He and the well-drilled Ulster Orchestra show them at their best, Yuasa keeping firm, yet sensitive control.
Irish Times, 22 May 2003
by Michael Dervan
Alan Rawsthorne (1905-71) was over-shadowed in British musical life by his contemporaries, William Walton and Michael Tippett, though his work for 22 films brought his music to an audience that mightn't even recognise his name. His two piano concerto have a bubbling energy and lively rhythmic drive. There's a motoric element that brings Prokofiev to mind, but the harmonic language has a blandness entirely alien to the great Russian master. Peter Donohoe and the Ulster Orchestra, under Takuo Yuasa, take to the music with zest, but can't quite surmount the stylistic anonymity that dogs it. The disc also includes a purely orchestral work, the 1960 Improvisations on a theme by Constant Lambert.
BBC Music Magazine, May 2003
by Anthony Burton
Naxos's valuable Rawsthorne series and its new British piano concertos project intersect fruitfully here. Rawsthorne's two concertos are genuine virtuoso works, by a trained pianist with a real feeling for keyboard textures and figuration.
The First, written in 1939 with an accompaniment of strings and percussion and rescored for full orchestra three years later, is a relatively light piece - though the final Tarantella becomes more serious when the brass declaim a Republican song of the Spanish Civil War.
The Second, commissioned for the 1951 Festival of Britain, is a more substantial four-movement work, with a memorable opening of Prokofiev-like lyricism, and an unusually extrovert finale with echoes of calypso. Peter Donohoe plays both works with brilliance and power, but also great delicacy. Takuo Yuasa and the Ulster Orchestra are more than capable partners, and also capture well the shifting moods of Rawsthorne's 1960 Improvisations on a theme by his contemporary, Constant Lambert.
On a rival disc containing both concertos, Geoffrey Tozer is all but a match for Donohoe in fluent pianism, and he and Matthias Bamert adopt a more relaxed and more convincing tempo for the central Chaconne of No. 1. Moreover, whereas the Naxos recording allows the piano to obscure a good deal of important orchestral material, especially in the woodwind, the Chandos engineers achieve an excellent balance even in a more resonant acoustic. With the late Concerto for Two Pianos an ideal coupling, the Chandos is first choice. But the Naxos is certainly an attractive bargain.
Gramophone. April 2003
by Ivan March
Piano Concertos - selected comparisons:
Tozer, LPO, Bamert (4/93) (CHAN) CHAN9125)
Piano Concerto No 1- selected comparison:
Lympany, Philip, Menges (6/56R) (EMI) 566935-2
Piano Concerto No 2 - selected comparison:
Curzon, LSO, Sargent (5/52R) (DECC) 473 116-2
Matthews, BBC SO, Sargent (4/58R) (EMI) 566935-2
Donohoe is a worthy match for some great interpreters of Rawsthorne's concertos.
Rawthorne's two piano concertos have been very successful on record, although recently they have been poorly served in the concert hall. The First, originally written with just strings and percussion accompaniment, was introduced in its later full orchestral form at a 1942 Promenade Concert by Louis Kentner. The Second was commissioned by the Arts Council for the 1951 Festival of Britain and premièred by Clifford Curzon in the then new Royal Festival Hall. He later recorded it with Sargent and the LSO on a 10-inch LP for Decca, which was well received at the time by the Shawe-Taylor/Sackville-West Record Guide. The authors commented on the 'open air tune in the finale with an instant appeal' and suggested the work would achieve the wide popularity it certainly deserves. Alas that never came about.
The First Concerto's outer movements coruscate with pianistic brilliance, especially in the dazzling performance from Moura Lympany on EMI, who, helped by a forward balance, plays with enormous dash and spirit. (First recordings always have something special about them, and Dame Moura was in superb form.) With excellent support from Menges, she is also especially characterful in the ingenious central Chaconne. First coolly, then strongly, she brings out a curious affinity of Rawsthorne's restated eight-chord sequence with the slow movement of Prokofiev's Third Concerto. (Incidentally, on this early Stereo EMI disc the important xylophone part emerges with more striking clarity than on either of its competitors.) But Tozer and Bamert are impressive too, with no lack of sparkle, pointing the first movement syncopations boldly, and with typically warm, full Chandos sound bringing out the lyrical weight of the music which underpins the glittering bravura.
On the new Naxos recording, Peter Donohoe plays with an effervescent lightness of touch that emphasises the scherzando element of the first movement. Yuasa provides witty orchestral detail - there is an engaging contribution from the bassoon - and yet still finds the underlying lyrical melancholy. He opens the Chaconne hauntingly, and the following dialogue with the piano has a compelling delicacy. The Tarantella finale brings an infectious élan and splendid momentum. Donohoe's brilliant solo contribution has all the sparkle you could want, and the gentle pay-off of the brief coda is neatly managed.
In the Second Concerto the fluidity of Donohoe's playing is particularly appealing, and the overall balance - though the opening flute solo is perhaps a little recessive - is mostly admirable. As the movement proceeds the surge of passion and thrust from soloist and orchestra alike pretty well matches the striking ardour Lympany generates, while again there is some delightful woodwind detail. Donohoe and Yuasa then deftly manage the quixotic changes of mood of the initally 'rather violent' Scherzo (the composer's description) and lead naturally into the wistful Adagio semplice, with its nostalgic clarinet cantilena answered so exquisitely by the piano. In the 'popular' finale, Rawsthorne almost immediately introduces his catchy main theme, which is in a two-four/three-eight metre and might almost have been written by Copland. Of the three soloists, it is Denis Matthews who introduces it most seductively. Donohoe is more gently lilting, but on Naxos the movement as a whole is played with spontaneous gusto and wit, producing a blaze of virtuosity at the close.
The Improvisations are based on a seven-note theme from Lambert's last ballet, Tiresias. They are widely varied in mood and style, and, even though Rawsthorne flirts with serialism, the variations are friendly and easy to follow, and the listener's attention is always fully engaged. Certainly this Naxos disc can be strongly recommended, and especially to those who have not yet before encountered Rawsthorne's music.