Romantic Piano Concertos Series Hyperion

[flyingdutchman]

Much of it on Qobuz

[Brian]

A lot of the concertos in this series have been Big, but Dohnanyi's First is the biggest yet: 45 minutes long, with a slow introduction that states a motto theme for all three movements. The introduction is self-consciously epic, with the pianist hammering out a theme while the left hand zooms up and down the keyboard in heroic style. Unfortunately, the motto tune is not distinctive enough or dramatic enough to really stick in your memory as it gets varied, like in Franck's Symphony. Instead, lots of stuff just happens for 45 minutes. It's pretentious. There is a cadenza midway through the 17-minute finale that features lots of timpani rolls, which is cool.

Concerto No. 2 was written almost 50 years later, after World War II and after Bartok's final concerto. It is, despite that age gap, still basically high romantic and with a slight Hungarian accent. (More like Miklos Rozsa in Hollywood than Bartok or Kodaly.) The first movement comes across soggy here, but the adagio is both lush and eerie at the same time, with soft muted strings and a rather mysterious, Bartokian piano part. The finale is very conservative but fairly colorful.

I like Dohnanyi a lot. I rate his Sextet one of my favorite romantic chamber works, his piano quintets are rich treats, the Nursery Variations are a delightful romp, and some of the solo piano pieces make excellent encores. But except for the adagio from No. 2, these concertos come across stodgy and overbaked.



I've recently become acquainted with Henselt's piano concerto through the blockbuster new recording by Paul Wee on BIS. Unfortunately, I don't love it, but it fits the romantic concerto template pretty perfectly: famous origin (premiered by Clara Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn), dramatic F minor key, Chopin-like larghetto, beefy solo part. Compared to the BIS recording, this one has somewhat less detailed orchestral playing and recorded sound.

Henselt's Variations are a 17-minute work based on a Meyerbeer operatic tune. It's a lovely little scoop of sorbet; I like the French horns barging into variation 2.

Man, Alkan really knew how to defy expectations, in a way that damaged his legacy. The guy who wrote the titanic, hyper-virtuosic Concerto for Solo Piano also wrote two concertos for piano and orchestra...that are chamber-sized miniatures with pared-down forces and, in the second especially, a deliberate lack of virtuosity. The First has more virtuoso glitter in its first movement, but the orchestral parts almost don't exist; they're thinner than Chopin's. Not surprisingly, the second of these works was written when Alkan was only 20 (the first has little documentation). They're very minor works.



Medtner's first big success and his final work are the partners here. Piano Concerto No. 1 is 34 minutes in one giant sonata-form movement where the development section is replaced by a theme and variations. Hyperion programs the allegro, theme-and-variation section, recap, and gigantic 6-minute coda as four tracks. The pianist writes his own booklet helpful note. Medtner was soloist at the 1918 premiere, under Koussevitsky.

It's an interesting piece. Very convincingly Russian romantic at a time when Prokofiev was already starting to make a splash; the theme and variations especially flow with an ease and naturalness that you cannot always take for granted in that form. The recapitulation hits with gale-force energy. My concern is that it's hard to have a 35-minute cyclical giant sonata form where the main themes are just...not that memorable. The ending is, though.

The Piano Quintet is a summary of the composer's career, written at the end but with themes he had been sketching since his youth. It is, as far as I know, the only chamber work in this Hyperion series. It's unusually concise for Medtner (24 minutes) and although the opening mood is autumnal in the great "late works" tradition of Brahms or Strauss, the piece builds to an absolutely triumphant final ending that weaves all the threads together. Medtner's taking a victory lap and throwing his own retirement party, rather than going quietly. My favorite piece on the two Medtner discs.



Here's what I knew about Eugen d'Albert before listening: the dude had eight children with six wives, and died while trying to get a divorce so he could marry #7. During adulthood he averaged a wedding every 7 years. I bet he registered at a different store each time.  The Hyperion booklet tactfully does not mention those details, but it does tell that he was Scottish, studied composition with Arthur Sullivan, and moved to the continent after being praised as a genius by Liszt.

Piano Concerto No. 1 rockets onto the scene in a single 44-minute movement (!), dedicated to Liszt and, according to the booklet, "slightly overindulgent." Yeah, slightly. But I find this a lot easier to take than, say, the over-indulgence of young Dohnanyi. There are so many Chopin-like interludes that the piece is mostly slow and quiet rather than bold and driving; it's better in the background than it would be live. When the piece finally erupts, it's with a fugue in the cadenza. This then leads into a short, scherzo-like final section.

By contrast, Piano Concerto No. 2 is in the placid key of E, in four movements that total just over 20 minutes. It's very grand and heroic, with a piano part that begins almost immediately. The music sounds like a combination of Bruch and Strauss - very conservative for its time. The motto theme is subtly employed this time and the concerto is, while not a major masterpiece, pretty satisfying at first listen.

The mikes are a little too distant and catch enough reverb to blur details.



Mackerras! Heck yeah! Except for the very cool romantic Konzertstuck, I have mostly neglected this music in favor of Weber's clarinet concertos. But these are very appealing works and Demidenko scales down his pianism to match the classical tone. (In fact he even seems a little self-conscious about being the right "size".) The slow movement of No. 1 is especially appealing. Hyperion's sound is still a little bit distant.

[Brian]

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.

I perceive you as the biggest Medtner fan on this board, so I was a little worried about your reaction  but thanks for the cadenza info and the interesting story about the Maharajah. I love the piano quintet and also, last week, was listening to the wonderful solo recital album by Yevgeny Sudbin.

Much of it on Qobuz

This is how I am listening to the ones I don't own!

[lordlance]

So far, @Brian's survey seems to confirm what most people suspected - these works have been forgotten for a good reason. The reviews don't seem terribly encouraging except to suggest that these works can be curiosities. I've tried tracks from the survey on random and I suppose the overriding impression is of lots and lots of busy piano work but that doesn't really make a piece memorable. I am curious of the 70+ volumes in this survey if there are any true gems that make one sit up and thank Hyperion for uncovering a lost treasure as opposed to being able to muster at best, "Pleasant enough for etch-Romantic background music."

I've tried Medtner but the density of the writing is quite off putting - feels like homework rather than entertainment - which may well explain why I don't like Bach at all. Not as bad as Reger so that's something I guess? 

[Brian]

So far, @Brian's survey seems to confirm what most people suspected - these works have been forgotten for a good reason. The reviews don't seem terribly encouraging except to suggest that these works can be curiosities. I've tried tracks from the survey on random and I suppose the overriding impression is of lots and lots of busy piano work but that doesn't really make a piece memorable. I am curious of the 70+ volumes in this survey if there are any true gems that make one sit up and thank Hyperion for uncovering a lost treasure as opposed to being able to muster at best, "Pleasant enough for etch-Romantic background music."

There are definitely some real good ones coming up! I own and love one of the volumes in the next post, featuring the wonderful Reynaldo Hahn concerto, which had only been recorded once before Hyperion got to it. (It's been recorded three more times since.) I have a personal fondness for Moszkowski, Paderewski, and Scharwenka for their sheer panache, and have fond memories of Alnaes. But as the listening and re-listening continues, we shall see!

[Wanderer]

 these concertos come across stodgy and overbaked.

You just wait until you get further down the Hyperion series... Donhnányi in comparison might seem like Johan Strauss! 😁

I particularly like the closing of the first movement of the First Concerto, in conjunction with the opening it makes a powerful impression. The in-between tends to ramble, a characteristic of both concerti.

[Wanderer]

I've recently become acquainted with Henselt's piano concerto through the blockbuster new recording by Paul Wee on BIS. Unfortunately, I don't love it, but it fits the romantic concerto template pretty perfectly: famous origin (premiered by Clara Schumann and Felix Mendelssohn), dramatic F minor key, Chopin-like larghetto, beefy solo part. Compared to the BIS recording, this one has somewhat less detailed orchestral playing and recorded sound.

Henselt's Variations are a 17-minute work based on a Meyerbeer operatic tune. It's a lovely little scoop of sorbet; I like the French horns barging into variation 2.

Man, Alkan really knew how to defy expectations, in a way that damaged his legacy. The guy who wrote the titanic, hyper-virtuosic Concerto for Solo Piano also wrote two concertos for piano and orchestra...that are chamber-sized miniatures with pared-down forces and, in the second especially, a deliberate lack of virtuosity. The First has more virtuoso glitter in its first movement, but the orchestral parts almost don't exist; they're thinner than Chopin's. Not surprisingly, the second of these works was written when Alkan was only 20 (the first has little documentation). They're very minor works.

This is one of the best issues in this series, both in terms of pianism and in terms of quality of the music. The hyper-virtuoso Hamelin is no accidental inclusion; even if it doesn't show it, the Henselt concerto is very difficult to play. Reportedly, a major reason for its neglect is that it demands lots of virtuosity that the listener doesn't necessarily perceive as such. It's memorable from start to finish (especially the haunting "religioso" section in the middle of the first movement) and ends with a bang. I was very excited when I read that Paul Wee was to record it - and his recording of it is equally excellent. A brilliant and unfairly neglected work and one of the jewels in this series.

The two Alkan "concerti da camera" ("chamber concerti") are both youthful works, but oh so lovely. Filled to the brim with melodic invention and piano pyrotechnics, they're so much fun in an unmistakable Alkan way. The second is scored for piano and strings (published when Alkan was 20 years old), autumnal and romantic in nature, with an achingly beautiful slow movement theme. The first, written by a still teenager Alkan, is equally delightful but more upbeat; it throws theme after theme at us in a delightfully wasteful way amid romps of Lisztian virtuosity. I would love to see them in concert some day (here's hoping) along with works like the Weber Konzertstück.

[Jo498]

So far, @Brian's survey seems to confirm what most people suspected - these works have been forgotten for a good reason. The reviews don't seem terribly encouraging except to suggest that these works can be curiosities. I've tried tracks from the survey on random and I suppose the overriding impression is of lots and lots of busy piano work but that doesn't really make a piece memorable. I am curious of the 70+ volumes in this survey if there are any true gems that make one sit up and thank Hyperion for uncovering a lost treasure as opposed to being able to muster at best, "Pleasant enough for etch-Romantic background music."

I've tried Medtner but the density of the writing is quite off putting - feels like homework rather than entertainment - which may well explain why I don't like Bach at all. Not as bad as Reger so that's something I guess?

It's a fairly wide spectrum from early 19th century virtuosos like Moscheles to 20th century behemoth concerti like the ones by Reger or Busoni. It's usually not for me; I have a handful of discs from the series but I also got rid of at least the Moscheles.

But the standard romantic piano concerto repertoire is quite small, so I am not surprised that many people made worthwhile discoveries here!
The series started well before streaming was common, so 20-25 years ago the music was often not accessible at all or only in one older recording with mediocre sound. (There had been a somewhat similar series on VOX, mostly played by Michael Ponti, of which Brilliant made a box 15 or 20 years ago; this was one of my worst buys because I realized I am not interested in most of that stuff.)

[Wanderer]

I perceive you as the biggest Medtner fan on this board, so I was a little worried about your reaction  but thanks for the cadenza info and the interesting story about the Maharajah. I love the piano quintet and also, last week, was listening to the wonderful solo recital album by Yevgeny Sudbin.

Medtner's memorability of themes, I find, is similar to that of late Brahms: if one is misled by the late Romantic harmony and is conditioned to expect Rachmaninov, he is bound for a relative disappointment. Medtner is more about detailed development of short motifs that grow and interwieve to develop into themes of great power and potency, all the more poignant for the fractured premonitions of them one has heard before. One is more apt to have in mind Beethoven, Brahms and Schumann when listening to Medtner, rather than Rachmaninov and as is often said about him, exposure is the key to appreciating him; he truly does reward repeated listening. It could be said that his melodic invention, while certainly memorable per se, is not geared towards instant gratification. I'm glad you enjoy what you enjoy so far. One thing that Medtner's music guarantees is that listening to it is not a waste of one's time.

[Wanderer]

Medtner's first big success and his final work are the partners here. Piano Concerto No. 1 is 34 minutes in one giant sonata-form movement where the development section is replaced by a theme and variations. Hyperion programs the allegro, theme-and-variation section, recap, and gigantic 6-minute coda as four tracks. The pianist writes his own booklet helpful note. Medtner was soloist at the 1918 premiere, under Koussevitsky.

It's an interesting piece. Very convincingly Russian romantic at a time when Prokofiev was already starting to make a splash; the theme and variations especially flow with an ease and naturalness that you cannot always take for granted in that form. The recapitulation hits with gale-force energy. My concern is that it's hard to have a 35-minute cyclical giant sonata form where the main themes are just...not that memorable. The ending is, though.

The Piano Quintet is a summary of the composer's career, written at the end but with themes he had been sketching since his youth. It is, as far as I know, the only chamber work in this Hyperion series. It's unusually concise for Medtner (24 minutes) and although the opening mood is autumnal in the great "late works" tradition of Brahms or Strauss, the piece builds to an absolutely triumphant final ending that weaves all the threads together. Medtner's taking a victory lap and throwing his own retirement party, rather than going quietly. My favorite piece on the two Medtner discs.

The Medtner Piano Concerto No. 1 is my favourite of the three and it was greatly admired (also by Rachmaninov) when Medtner first performed it, not least for its flawless original structure. The heroic and tragic main theme is the source of everything that happens in the concerto, the development is in the form of a brilliant set of theme and variations (the first two of which in particular explore psychological depths that bring to mind a sensation of glimpsing an abyss opening under the music's feet) that lead with inexorable urgency to the stormy recapitulation. The coda shows visions of what came before, clad in unusual, mysterious harmonies, before the final three piano strokes, like ringing bells, are left to fade the work into silence. A brilliant work, of which thankfully we have a number of different recordings, all very good in their own way (except maybe the one on Naxos). This one by Alexeev is particularly successful in highlighting the otherworldly nocturnal quality of the music and the recording highlights the Medtnerian left-hand writing.

I would have guessed that you would have found the Piano Quintet the lesser work here; which it is, but only in relation to the Concerto. I'm glad you enjoyed it, as it is indeed a very psychologically powerful work - more accessible, too. Medtner, incorporating a church hymn theme into it, also meant it to have spiritual connotations. The slow movement, in particular, is very beautiful and the over-the-top ending must be quite exhilarating to see in live performance! 

[Wanderer]

Here's what I knew about Eugen d'Albert before listening: the dude had eight children with six wives, and died while trying to get a divorce so he could marry #7. During adulthood he averaged a wedding every 7 years. I bet he registered at a different store each time.  The Hyperion booklet tactfully does not mention those details, but it does tell that he was Scottish, studied composition with Arthur Sullivan, and moved to the continent after being praised as a genius by Liszt.

Piano Concerto No. 1 rockets onto the scene in a single 44-minute movement (!), dedicated to Liszt and, according to the booklet, "slightly overindulgent." Yeah, slightly. But I find this a lot easier to take than, say, the over-indulgence of young Dohnanyi. There are so many Chopin-like interludes that the piece is mostly slow and quiet rather than bold and driving; it's better in the background than it would be live. When the piece finally erupts, it's with a fugue in the cadenza. This then leads into a short, scherzo-like final section.

By contrast, Piano Concerto No. 2 is in the placid key of E, in four movements that total just over 20 minutes. It's very grand and heroic, with a piano part that begins almost immediately. The music sounds like a combination of Bruch and Strauss - very conservative for its time. The motto theme is subtly employed this time and the concerto is, while not a major masterpiece, pretty satisfying at first listen.

The mikes are a little too distant and catch enough reverb to blur details.



Mackerras! Heck yeah! Except for the very cool romantic Konzertstuck, I have mostly neglected this music in favor of Weber's clarinet concertos. But these are very appealing works and Demidenko scales down his pianism to match the classical tone. (In fact he even seems a little self-conscious about being the right "size".) The slow movement of No. 1 is especially appealing. Hyperion's sound is still a little bit distant.

I find that d'Albert's First Piano Concerto has one of the most brilliantly brooding openings ever, masterfully building tension and inexorably leading to a very memorable orchestral climax... only to fizzle out and meander from then on, never attaining the heights promised by that opening. The Second Concerto is much more concise and with more memorable material. It's one of the best in the series for quality background listening.


The Weber issue with Demidenko, however, is certainly no second-rate background material. The deservedly famous Konzertstück receives an exhilarating performance by Demidenko (in 2024, it is still the best recorded version); same goes for the two piano concerti, full of catchy tunes and good humour. I'm particularly fond of the opening movement of the first concerto.

[André]

I just spent some time reading comments from viewers of Dave Hurwitz' video about one of Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concertos series: the Reger and Pfitzner concertos. Didn't listen to the video, as I knew what to expect (DH downing both works in flames, cackling maniacally and making jokes like 'Parsifal without the laughs').

What surprised me is the number of comments defending the works (I love both btw) and their respective composer. Plenty of suggestions for other places to explore their music (Reger and Pfitzner's). There were even a few who mentioned having played the Reger. Professional pianists writing YT comments ! That reassured me that even obscure or maligned works or composers have their defenders. In the last 5 years Reger, Pfitzner, Schreker, Braunfels and Genzmer have been at the forefront of my listening activity. Composers I knew nothing about a few years ago !

Thanks Hyperion for this fascinating series !

[Maestro267]

Nothing like someone criticizing a work to bring out the pitchforks, eh?

[Jo498]

If Reger or Pfitzner had been British or Norwegian they would be hailed as indubitably great composers despite some flaws.
As it is they suffer from comparison with Mahler, Strauss etc. and are easy to dislike (certainly for DH who hates Germans anyway as difficult as this is in classical music).

[DavidW]

I like Reger's organ music. I probably should try out other music that he has written.

[pjme]

. I probably should try out other music that he has written.

There's a beautiful, short Requiem (text Hebbel)

Seele, vergiß sie nicht,
Seele, vergiß nicht die Toten!
Sieh' sie umschweben dich,
schauernd verlassen,
und in den heiligen Gluten,
die den Armen die Liebe schürt,
atmen sie auf und erwarmen
und genießen zum letzten Mal
ihr verglimmendes Leben.
.....

in a beautiful classic version with Marga Höffgen, alto. 

[Brian]

(certainly for DH who hates Germans anyway as difficult as this is in classical music).

Maybe the distinction between German and Austrian is strong here, but he has championed (more than I ever would) Austrian late romantics like Hausegger and Reznicek. I think the difference is he likes florid colorful episodic writing with lots of percussion, rather than formal rigor.

[Brian]

Franz Xaver Scharwenka has always been a cult figure for romantic concerto lovers. Earl Wild has a barnstorming recording of the First Concerto with Leinsdorf and Boston. This premiere recording of the Fourth was followed by a one-off Naxos version (conducted by reliable Lukasz Borowicz, but slower in every movement). There is now also a complete recording of all four concertos on Chandos, which I need to make sure I downloaded because I think I got it from the Chandos web shop.

The Fourth is a good example of why Scharwenka's maintained low-grade popularity this whole time. It has catchy tunes (especially in the scherzo), a glittering extrovert piano part, and a decent handle on sonata form structure. The first movement is enormous, but the next three, at just 7 minutes each, never drag too long. A definite winner. The public premiere was played by the composer - and conducted by Gustav Mahler.

Emil von Sauer was more famous as a pianist - he was a student of Liszt, admired by Busoni, and teacher of Josef Hofmann - but he also toured with this concerto, including playing it with Mahler conducting. It's full of memorable orchestral touches, duets with piano and horn, and scherzo-like rhythms even in other movements. Another winner. Easy to see why Gramophone got a little carried away with the excess praise on the cover.

The liner notes are very well-written and interesting, even by Hyperion's high standard.



These are two quirky works by the Victorian romantics. Parry's piece is in F sharp major (!!), and Stanford's was meant as a light, happy counterpart to the heroic, questing minor-to-major-key journeys of most concertos at the time. Unfortunately, Stanford's sank into oblivion when it was premiered on a concert program after Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony and the Tristan prelude and Liebestod, thus dooming it to sound frivolous.

The Parry piece has a gentle English folk accent to some of its tunes, and the unusual key is ear-catching. I quite like the first movement; the finale is rather relaxed and low-stakes but overall, this is a nice hangout concerto. Like the concerto is your friend and you're sitting on the porch chatting.

Stanford's Violin Concerto is a true hidden masterpiece with an instantly memorable opening. The beginning of this piano concerto - with flutes intoning the main theme over piano accompaniment - is nearly as instantly engaging. There are later passages that are somewhat Brahmsian, and in the 8th minute, just before the recap arrives, a really strange menacing Jaws-like figure in the double basses. The slow movement is really well sustained and projects a graceful calm; the finale is the least interesting part.

Overall, I have liked all the Stanford concertos I've heard so far more than all the Stanford symphonies I've heard so far. Not an essential CD of forgotten masterpieces, but well-tuned to my personal tastes and preferences. Your mileage may vary but I liked these!



The Glazunov piano concertos are relatively popular and also available in the Serebrier complete symphony cycle, for example. No. 1 has an ingenious format: an allegro first movement, then an expansive theme-and-variations with slow, mazurka, scherzo, and finale sections. It does not quite deliver on the unique promise of that structure but it is always genial and pleasant.

No. 2 is a 20-minute trifle with a gentle, easygoing romantic streak and - given the 1910s dates - a nostalgia for years and styles past. In the unusual key of B major, it finally sheds its relaxed nature in the second half of the finale, which rises to one last, wistful Russian climax with glittering cymbals, triangles, and folkish tunes.

Alexander Goedicke was Medtner's first cousin, a pianist and mostly self-taught composer who had some classes with Arensky and Taneyev. Concertstuck is a kind of free-ish form fantasia where the pianist starts out, in the booklet's words, with a "decorative" part under a horn call, before a Tchaikovsky-like string unison melody passage around 7', scherzo, and rather grandiose finale (the amount of brass almost brings Nielsen to mind). Pretty interesting novelty. Live audiences would love it, if they ever got to hear 14-minute pieces.



I own a physical copy of this, but have put it into the "sell/donate" pile. For this project, I pulled it out of the pile, and this listen may have rescued it permanently.

My initial reaction to these Litolff concertos is that they're just so gosh-darned serious. They are capital-S Serious. In B minor and D minor, with brooding intros and grand symphonic four-movement structures, they clearly have profound ambition. But now, recalibrating my ears to take this as a quirk rather than a fatal flaw, I can hear how attractive and well-made the music is. Obviously it is not profound at all and poor Litolff had an inflated sense of what he was doing, but he still managed to make good music. I especially like not just the famous Scherzo in No. 4 but its slow movement, full of Brahmsian French horn and cello melodies.

So my initial vote was "pompous," but I now change to "endearingly pompous."



A true treasure, and one of the absolute essential discs in the series. Massenet's concerto has somewhat of a reputation among critics as tacky or overwrought, but I absolutely love it and so (iirc) does Sergeant Rock. So the critics can eat a bazooka! It's great stuff, with an utterly lovely slow movement and a "Slovakian" finale that doesn't really fit in with the rest (and is considered gauche by those fancy critics) but is an incredibly fun, catchy romp with some of the most skillful orchestration in this whole series. (Celesta! Klezmer trumpets that sound like Mahler!)

Hahn's concerto is even better, a magical work, the best concertante work to come out of French impressionism? (I think the Ravel concertos don't count, as they're too modern.) This is, amazingly, the first-ever complete recording, since the historic one had a bunch of cuts. Masterpiece!

[Dry Brett Kavanaugh]

^ I'm a big fan of Goedicke's trumpet concerto.

[Maestro267]

Interesting sequence as I have three of these five latest, the Scharwenka, Parry and Litolff.