William ALWYN (1905 - 1985)

 

Piano Concerto No. 1 • Derby Day Overture • Piano Concerto No. 2 • Sonata alla Toccata

 

Peter Donohoe (piano), Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, James Judd

 

“It is very important as an artist to be extremely proud of your own country’s culture. … The more I play this music the more I believe so much of it to be amongst the greatest music in the repertoire. … It is therefore wonderful to have the support of Naxos in such an adventurous enterprise.”  Peter Donohoe

 

This centenary celebration of William Alwyn is the fourth release in Naxos’ exciting new British Piano Concerto series, which aims to bring the many undiscovered gems of the British concerto repertoire to full recognition as well as introducing superb new performances of more familiar repertoire.

 

Like his contemporary Samuel Barber, Alwyn was an unashamed Romantic who preferred his music to appeal to the heart rather than to the head. Alwyn’s two Piano Concertos are quite different in scope and idiom. The relatively short, neoclassical Piano Concerto No. 1, is one of his most adventurous early works while the Piano Concerto No. 2 has such an epic sweep and broad romantic appeal that it might be considered as Alwyn’s homage to Rachmaninov.

After Chandos's service to Alwyn, now it's the turn of Naxos. Peter Donohoe, born-again champion of the British piano concerto, gives tremendous performances of two works he can rarely if ever have played live. This is music well worth discovering: and nestling between the two concerti is the splendid Derby Day Overture - again, fine work by the Bournemouth orchestra.

Gramophone

 

William Alwyn's destiny is to be remembered through his film scores, but his two piano concertos contain plenty of purely musical drama and lyrical allure. The first of them, written in 1930, is on a par with John Ireland's concerto of the same year or the two Shostakovich piano concertos. There is a strain of romanticism running through the musical language, but it is spiked with pianistic bravura, incisive rhythms and keen shafts of instrumental colour.

The Second Concerto of 1960 is cast from a similar alloy. Alwyn did not perhaps manifest those signs of a questing spirit that marked the music of Tippett, and there are moments here that conjure up some big-screen epic; but he knew how to tap the virtuoso potential of the piano and how to craft a concerto of vitality and melodic warmth.

As in the solo Sonata alla toccata, Peter Donohoe matches spry, dynamic pianism with a discreet, affecting ear for Alwyn's poetic moods, and the disc is a worthy tribute in Alwyn's centenary year.

Geoffrey Norris

 

Naxos 8557590