KENNETH LEIGHTON (1929-1988)

 

Symphony No. 1, Op. 42

Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 57 Concerto estivo

 

Howard Shelley (piano)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Martyn Brabbins

 

This latest volume includes the very successful First Symphony, completed in 1964, which won first prize in the 1965 City of Trieste international competition for a new symphonic work. It received its British premiere in October 1967 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Groves. In three movements, it is the only Leighton symphony to employ purely orchestral forces. The composer says that the opening movement ‘sets a mood of elegiac lyricism, and eventually becomes a strong, even desperate protest’, while the second movement, a vibrant scherzo, ‘loosens the reins, and on a spirit of rebellion seeks to arrive at an affirmative answer by sheer force of will’. He describes the final movement as the ‘expressive essence of the symphony… a movement of great beauty’.

 

The Third Piano Concerto was written in 1968 when the composer succeeded Edmund Rubbra as a fellow of Worcester College, Oxford. Leighton wrote: ‘On the whole the music is more relaxed, more lyrical, and certainly more tonal than that of the previous two piano concertos. And there is also much less emphasis on counterpoint and more on vertical sonorities. Its three movements follow the traditional fast – slow – fast form.’ The central Pastoral evokes ‘the warmth and stillness of a long hot summer afternoon… with a more agitated and dance like central section’. The final movement comprises a set of variations, based on the main theme of the work.

 

One of the most famous and recorded of pianists in the world today, Howard Shelley receives unanimous critical acclaim for his many recordings, whether on Chandos or other labels. Like the conductor, Martyn Brabbins, he has championed much rarely performed repertoire, this disc being only his latest example.

 

Chandos CHAN10608