THE ROMANTIC PIANO CONCERTO – 43

 

WILLIAM STERNDALE BENNETT

Piano Concerto No 4 in F minor Op 19 [27'35]

1 Allegro con maesta [11'46]

2 Barcarole: Andante cantabile e con moto [7'55]

3 Presto: Agitato [7'42]

 

FRANCIS EDWARD BACHE

Piano Concerto in E major Op 18 [24'42]

4 Allegro non troppo [10'47]

5 Andante [5'55]

6 Allegro non assai [7'58]

 

WILLIAM STERNDALE BENNETT

7 Caprice in E major Op 22 [12'49]

 

Howard Shelley piano/conductor

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

 

Total Duration: 65'19

 

The Romantic Piano Concerto series returns to England, and explores further fascinating and little-known repertoire. Indeed, the concerto by Francis Edward Bache (1833–1858) has perhaps never been performed. The composer, a pupil of Sterndale Bennett, and acclaimed at a young age by contemporaries all over Europe as a prodigious talent of whom great things were expected, died of TB at the age of 25, leaving the manuscript of his Piano Concerto in the library of the Royal Academy of Music, where it has languished until this recording. This enchanting work is a great discovery. Also on the disc are two accomplished works by the composer-pianist Sterndale Bennett. The indefatigable Howard Shelley directs the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra from the piano.

 

Hyperion CDA67595