Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto Series: Beach/Chaminade/Howell

[Alan Howe]

When the Chaminade struck up, I thought we were going to go straight into the Flying Dutchman overture! Then we were in Fry's Turkish Delight territory - rather a lot of cod-orientalisms, which, I suppose, were popular at the time. Enjoyable, nonetheless.

I enjoyed the Howells very much in a pre-Warsaw Concerto sort of way (I really like the Addinsell in fact). For me this was the real discovery among the three pieces programmed.

I'll now be comparing the Naxos/Beach performance to see how it stacks up...

[Alan Howe]

I certainly can't agree about the comparison with the Naxos CD. The Naxos recording is much less refined (the piano tone's rather 'clangy') and Feinberg is certainly more 'in your face' than Driver. I suppose it depends what you prefer - subtlety or something rather more up-front. For repeated listening I'd take the less hectoring Driver every time.

[Mark Thomas]

For me this new recording of Amy Beach's Concerto completely exclipses the Naxos one. The acoustic has a natural concert hall ambiance, rather than the more artificial forward placing of the piano from which the Naxos CD (and so many others) suffers. Danny Driver's slightly reserved performance perfectly matches the music's character too. The Chaminade and Howell pieces are more than mere makeweights, making this a very successful addition to the RPC series. 

[Ilja]

Hm, seems we disagree then - perhaps being used to the old recording played a role here, too. Mark's comment about the sound quality almost makes me think I have a different recording from his; mine, which I downloaded from iTunes, sounds very clackety, almost metallic at times. I'll give Howell's piece a retrial soon; perhaps I just got it in the wrong moment.

[Mark Thomas]

It's OK to disagree . I have the mp3 download direct from Hyperion.

[Alan Howe]

Different people hear different things in different recordings. Maybe it's my ears, who knows?

[chill319]

Though I haven't heard this rendition of the Howell, for me the work popped out from the surrounding pieces in the 2010 recording by Seferinova with the Orion SO under Toby Purser (Cameo Classics). Perhaps its fund of invention may be more obvious to pianists than to others, but within its chosen parameters, it's really well made.

[ken]

Superbly played.  Great sound.  Best version of Amy Beach's piano concerto.  Chaminade's concertstuck an absolute joy to listen to.  One of Hyperion's best.  Highly recommended! 

[Ilja]

I revisited this recording today, after I had reconfigured my computer (not by choice, alas). I stupidly forgot I already had it and bought it from Hyperion. To my amazement, the sound quality in the MP3s Hyperion had me download is miles better than in the Apple Music files, although both used 256kbps/44,100 kHz encoding. I then purchased Cowen's Concertstück for Piano and Orchestra from the Apple Store (I was curious, and hey, we had a Christmas Bonus) and discovered a similar sound quality difference there. Now, I may have been unlucky twice, or Apple may do horrible things to their MP3s but for now, it seems that the wise thing is to purchase Hyperion MP3s from Hyperion directly. Also, it's hardly more expensive and Hyperion gets to keep their 30% store cut.

To the music: for me the Chaminade Concertstück is really the star of the show in this recording. It may be brief, but it is just so well-crafted and catchy. Am I the only one to hear pre-echoes of Rachmaninov in the second half (particularly in the percussion writing)?

[semloh]

Am I the only one to hear pre-echoes of Rachmaninov in the second half (particularly in the percussion writing)?

Well, yes, but only now you've mentioned it! 

Interesting to hear about the difference in mp3 download quality. I wonder if such differences are common. I naively assumed they were all the same.