Romantic Piano Concertos Series Hyperion

[josephine85]

Does anyone have an insight into Hyperion and the way the executives make their business-plans? Will there ever be a "Complete Romantic Piano Concerts" box available you think?
Hyperion does not seem to go so much for issuing complete collections other ways than as individual full-priced CDs.
There are a lot of great music in the Romantic Piano Concerto Collection, but I would go bankrupt if I tried buying the entire set, or even half of it! And Hyperion is not present at all on any streaming service that I know of.
I think Hyperion (and I!) would benefit if they issued more boxes.
So far I have:
Korgold LH-Marx,
Reger-Strauss
Rubinstein 4-Scharwenka
Henslet-Alkan
Busoni
Paderewski-Moszkowski
Which others would you recommend ?

[Brahmsian]

Does anyone have an insight into Hyperion and the way the executives make their business-plans? Will there ever be a "Complete Romantic Piano Concerts" box available you think?
Hyperion does not seem to go so much for issuing complete collections other ways than as individual full-priced CDs.
There are a lot of great music in the Romantic Piano Concerto Collection, but I would go bankrupt if I tried buying the entire set, or even half of it! And Hyperion is not present at all on any streaming service that I know of.
I think Hyperion (and I!) would benefit if they issued more boxes.
So far I have:
Korgold LH-Marx,
Reger-Strauss
Rubinstein 4-Scharwenka
Henslet-Alkan
Busoni
Paderewski-Moszkowski
Which others would you recommend ?

I highly recommend the Saint-Saens - Stephen Hough/Sakari Oramo/Birmingham Orchestra

[North Star]

The Delius and Ireland are delightful works, and I would be very surprised if Piers Lane and David Lloyd-Jones didn't do an excellent job with them.
You would probably also like Sudbin's Medtner on BIS, if I recall correctly, it is better liked than the Medtner volumes of the series. The music is first rate.

[mc ukrneal]

If you ever visit the US, Berkshire have a good chunk of them at $6.99, but I understand shipping (and then customs) to Europe is quite high.

What to recommend? Almost everything. Some of my personal favorites are Alnaes, Lyapunov, Bortkiewicz and Pierne. The Stenhammar Piano Concerto is great too, but it is one of the few I don't have since I had it first already.

[San Antone]

In the description of the series, Hyperion refers to the "first fifty volumes" which might indicate the series will continue possibly to a second fifty installments.  Hyperion has been known to issue box sets of a series, e.g. the Schubert Lieder and the Leslie Howard Complete Liszt Piano box.

Who knows? They might issue the first box of 50 priced much less than buying each individually.

[Maestro267]

A wonderful series that has unearthed some real gems. My collection so far:

Vol. 3: Mendelssohn Concertos for Two Pianos
Vol. 10: Weber
Vol. 11: Scharwenka 4 & Sauer
Vol. 12: Parry & Stanford (this was the first one I got)
Vol. 14: Litolff 2 & 4
Vol. 19: Tovey & Mackenzie

[flyingdutchman]

I have almost all of them.

[Brian]

I think Hyperion has no fixed plan for an end to the series at 100, or any other milestone - they will continue until they get bored, artists stop volunteering, and/or there's no more money to be made in it. Which is cool, because I do love this series too.

[North Star]

I think Hyperion has no fixed plan for an end to the series at 100, or any other milestone - they will continue until they get bored, artists stop volunteering, and/or there's no more money to be made in it. Which is cool, because I do love this series too.

Or, I assume, when they run out of Romantic (Piano) Concertos. . .

[San Antone]

I think Hyperion has no fixed plan for an end to the series at 100, or any other milestone - they will continue until they get bored, artists stop volunteering, and/or there's no more money to be made in it. Which is cool, because I do love this series too.

I agree, but I didn't mean to imply as much.  I was just trying to intuit the phrase "the first fifty volumes" and I was probably reading too much into it.

[josephine85]

Thanks you all for your suggestions.

66 albums and counting. Impressive Hyperion! No release a box for the people :-)
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/s.asp?s=S_1

I think Mendelssohn and Delius will be next on my shopping list.

Has been a while since Hamelin contributed to this series I hope he will record something again for this series.

[Wanderer]

Does anyone have an insight into Hyperion and the way the executives make their business-plans? Will there ever be a "Complete Romantic Piano Concerts" box available you think?
Hyperion does not seem to go so much for issuing complete collections other ways than as individual full-priced CDs.
There are a lot of great music in the Romantic Piano Concerto Collection, but I would go bankrupt if I tried buying the entire set, or even half of it! And Hyperion is not present at all on any streaming service that I know of.
I think Hyperion (and I!) would benefit if they issued more boxes.
So far I have:
Korgold LH-Marx,
Reger-Strauss
Rubinstein 4-Scharwenka
Henslet-Alkan
Busoni
Paderewski-Moszkowski
Which others would you recommend ?

This is a splendid series and almost every issue has something worthwhile for pianophiles interested in the idiom. My recommendations would go thus:

Indispensable:
Vol. 2 – Medtner 2 & 3
Vol. 7 – Alkan & Henselt
Vol. 8 – Medtner 1 & Quintet
Vol. 10 – Weber
Vol. 11 – Sauer 1 & Scharwenka 4
Vol. 18 – Korngold & Marx
Vol. 19 – Mackenzie & Tovey
Vol. 22 – Busoni

Excellent:
Vol. 14 – Litolff 2 & 4

Very good:
Vol. 6 – Dohnányi
Vol. 9 – Albert

These are really the standout issues for me.

Avoid:
Seta Tanyel's Scharwenka 2 & 3.

Most others are good or quite good, without being on any level exceptional or extraordinary. Explore with leisure. 

[Wanderer]

I think Mendelssohn and Delius will be next on my shopping list.

Regarding Delius, I emphatically recommend you go with this:
[asin]B000089HB6[/asin]

...or, if it's the earlier version you're after, this:
[asin]B00925T8KW[/asin]

[Papy Oli]

I only have the Moscheles 4 & 5 in this series but it is superb.

[josephine85]

Thank you for all the advice. The Medtner albums are both something I am curious to hear. I love his music but haven't got around to listening to his concertos.

[Brian]

BIG BUMP

I decided I need a new maniacal listening project. Why not the complete Hyperion Romantic Piano Concertos? Wonder how long it will take...started on the morning of September 10; maybe I'll be finished by Christmas.



The series starts with two of Poland's most important and most likable romantic concertos. Both have been recorded by others very well, especially the Paderewski by Earl Wild. The concertos are chock-full of tunes and color, and they're easy to listen to without being "easy listening." The big tune from the Moszkowski finale has lived on the fringes of my brain for about 20 years now, and the big tune from the Paderewski slow movement has been there for a few years, too.

There is a good amount of competition for these concertos - though not many new recordings since these were made way back in summer 1991. I'll definitely be keeping Earl Wild close in the Paderewski. But these performances are bright, fun, well-detailed, and clearly the product of enthusiastic performers.



Though the Yevgeny Sudbin cycle of Medtner piano concertos is now more widely respected, this early Hyperion disc was the way many listeners found out about the music. (By weird coincidence, Chandos and Hyperion recorded rival Medtner concerto albums in the same year, 1991.)

These are both Big pieces, at 36-38 minutes; No. 2 offers a dramatic opening and thematic material that sustains its epic length. Like a lot of Beethoven, the tunes are not really "tunes," but rather architectural elements that allow the rest of the music to thrive. The comparison most people make is to Rachmaninov, though: "Rach without the tunes." Rach's emotional and structural arcs are easier to follow from gloom to triumph, too, though.

But No. 2 is probably the best intro to Medtner because it's such a strongly thought-through work. No. 3 is more pensive, starting with a 15-minute slow(ish) movement before the 90-second Interludium and gigantic finale. The finale sounds decidedly Russian romantic/nationalist in places - again, without the tunes. Demidenko is suitably mercurial and passionate, and the Scottish trumpets are appropriately piercing.



Mendelssohn's Concerto for Two Pianos in A Flat is somehow even larger than either of Medtner's concertos: a nearly Brahmsian 42 minutes! This monster was written at age 15, a year before the Octet, and the E Major concerto, a mere half hour, was written before that at age 14. It seems likely that the earlier work was written for Felix and Fanny to duet over.

The big A Flat piece starts with a calm, genial, Mozartian melody that is not at all "allegro vivace." My first instinct is to blame the performers, but the rival Naxos recording is two minutes longer overall. Unusually, the opening theme returns at the end of the orchestral introduction. Then the pianos enter. Since Mendelssohn feels the need to give both pianos equal opportunity to show off, there is quite a bit of repetition and structural bloat. The E major work is marginally more concise but, despite its earlier vintage, does not feel immature. It's just...long, especially the slow movement. These are low-stakes and low-interest pieces. They don't offend, but I will probably never listen again.



Two minor masters from a few decades apart in the Russian romantic movement. Arensky wrote some wonderful suites for two pianos and the masterpiece String Quartet No. 2 (for violin, viola, and two cellos); Bortkiewicz wrote two colorful folksy symphonies and a box-set worth of solo piano works that have recently been released on Piano Classics. That label also handled Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 3, so if you want to continue the cycle from this recording of No. 1, you can.

Arensky takes a cue from Schumann, starting his concerto with a dramatic bang before letting the bulk of the first movement recede into a calmer, more poetic, less tense mood. The polonaise-like finale echoes other folksy romantic works, like the scherzo of Josef Suk's early symphony or Grieg's Symphonic Dance No. 3. But ultimately Arensky's treatment is more self-serious and less memorable. The 9-minute Fantasia on Russian Folksongs is somewhat more successful; its first big theme is a sweeping romantic Grand Tune in the heroic manner. There's a surprise quiet ending.

Bortkiewicz' Concerto No. 1 starts with a 17-minute opener complete with a mysterious slow introduction that includes a piano and cello duet. It gives so many vibes at once: the Tristan chord, Grieg maybe, or the Carnival of the Animals' swan. Then the piano rather suddenly lifts things into the main allegro. It's a fine movement, not on the level of this composer's symphonies, but the solo cadenza is gripping and the major-key second theme is almost as sweeping and romantic as Rachmaninov's big tunes. (A different performance might improve its impact by about 5%.) The most engaging part of the concerto is the very energetic, folksy finale with lots of finale (including tambourine). It's kind of like a piano concerto version of the finale of Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony. I dig it.

At times, the BBC Scottish Symphony and Maksymiuk - here in their fourth appearance in a row - start to sound a little less engaged with the music, though they also have the heft needed to sound suitably Russian in climaxes. They dig in best to the most dig-innable music, the end of the Bortkiewicz, although this has so many cymbal crashes that you can hear the poor guy's arms getting tired!



For the first time in the series, the BBC Scottish Symphony and Maksymiuk take a day off.

Rimsky-Korsakov's 15ish minute piano concerto, written in full maturity and based on a folk tune collected by Balakirev, is a fairly frequent coupling or filler piece on Russian concerto albums. The Balakirev works are less common, though one of them is even shorter. The other, Concerto No. 2, took Balakirev 49 years to write...and then he died before finishing it. At any rate, he seems to have written the first movement around 1860, the slow movement around 1910, and then left detailed instructions for a finale, which Lyapunov finished. I wonder what the longest gestation period for a single work of classical music is?

The Rimsky-Korsakov lives up to its "perennial filler" status: fine and enjoyable, but not a star attraction. It's kind of like Franck's Symphonic Variations, I guess?

Balakirev's First Concerto is just a first movement, which he never bothered supplementing with slow movement or finale. It takes its cues from Schumann rather than Russian romanticism, and it's unbalanced by necessity: if he had known he would only write one movement, he might not have wasted time on a traditional allegro with long orchestral introduction. The Second Concerto is better, fuller, more creative (it doesn't have the big long intro), and a little more Russian in feeling. There are missteps (a fugue development section) but the slow movement is lovely. Lyapunov unexpectedly adds three percussionists and tuba in the finale, which is fun.

Except for the youthful Mendelssohn, these first five volumes all focus on Polish and Russian music. That changes with Vol. 6.

[brewski]

BIG BUMP

I decided I need a new maniacal listening project. Why not the complete Hyperion Romantic Piano Concertos? Wonder how long it will take...started on the morning of September 10; maybe I'll be finished by Christmas.

This is maniacal indeed. Though I've heard a few in the series, I had no idea the cycle is now at 87 recordings (     ).

That's a helluva lot of piano concertos. Godspeed!

-Bruce

[Wanderer]

BIG BUMP

I decided I need a new maniacal listening project. Why not the complete Hyperion Romantic Piano Concertos?

Pfft, I've done this 4 or 5 times already, last time in June. 
And I've been listening to most of these recordings (the better ones, constantly) for years. You might develop a slight fever of pianus mediocritus by the end, but you'll love it. 

[Wanderer]

BIG BUMP




Though the Yevgeny Sudbin cycle of Medtner piano concertos is now more widely respected, this early Hyperion disc was the way many listeners found out about the music. (By weird coincidence, Chandos and Hyperion recorded rival Medtner concerto albums in the same year, 1991.)

These are both Big pieces, at 36-38 minutes; No. 2 offers a dramatic opening and thematic material that sustains its epic length. Like a lot of Beethoven, the tunes are not really "tunes," but rather architectural elements that allow the rest of the music to thrive. The comparison most people make is to Rachmaninov, though: "Rach without the tunes." Rach's emotional and structural arcs are easier to follow from gloom to triumph, too, though.

But No. 2 is probably the best intro to Medtner because it's such a strongly thought-through work. No. 3 is more pensive, starting with a 15-minute slow(ish) movement before the 90-second Interludium and gigantic finale. The finale sounds decidedly Russian romantic/nationalist in places - again, without the tunes. Demidenko is suitably mercurial and passionate, and the Scottish trumpets are appropriately piercing.

I'm sorry, were you on the phone when the finale's Big Tune appeared, after meticulous preparation, first lovingly on the piano, then taken up by the orchestra and then finally in that freakin' majestic peroration in the coda?  

I think that the "tuneless Rachmaninov" cliché has been debunked for quite some time now; I'm only ever reading it nowadays followed by "but it's not true". And even if some of the smaller pieces might be more Beethovenian/Brahmsian in nature (that is, it doesn't rain in-your-face tunes out of thin air), I don't think that the piano concerti fall in this category at all; they get both the Beethoven treatment and the big tunes.

Regarding Demidenko's version of the Second Concerto, one might also note that he uses the longer and meatier first movement cadenza (Tozer on the Chandos recording uses the smaller one), which is one of the most exquisite cadenzas in any concerto. The work is dedicated to Rachmaninov, by the way, who in turn dedicated his Fourth Concerto to Medtner (the two works were composed in tandem and the two friends corresponded a lot during that period).

Medtner's Third Concerto is dedicated to... the Maharajah of Mysore (for a glimpse of obscene wealth, google his palace in India), an unlikely benefactor during Medtner's later years in England, who also financed the Medtner recordings of the composer playing his own music which some of you may have heard (of).

[AaronSF]

I see these recordings are on sale at the Berkshire Record Outlet for $8.99 each.FWIW.