Stanford's Piano Concerto No. 2: best British piano concerto of all?

[Serial_Apologist]

I could indeed - but I was rather hoping that someone else might do that (and I have evidently not hoped in vain!)...


Well, that's hardly surprising as there's no commercial recording of it and it's now been performed for quite a few years.

The version I am lucky enough to have on a cassette was given on R3 at the Maida Vale Studios as part of a 70th anniversary Invitation Concert series for the BBCSO, with Tippett's Symphony No 2 occupying the first half, and Rolf Hind, baritone singer Ashley Holland and the Apollo Voices with the BBCSO under Slatkin. And very good it is too. It was preceded with a rebroadcast programme about Bush in which the wonderful John Amis reminisced about his memories of the composer, whose recorded voice with its stentorian tone from a 1960 interview was also heard.

I think it should be Maida Valeable.

Sorry - where's me coat?

[teamsaint]

The EriK Chisholm Concertos deserve mention, I would have thought. The second even gets the odd concert outing, I think.

And in these European times, and since it was written here, ( I assume) can we claim the Roberto Gerhard ?

[ahinton]

It's kind of Irelandish in its harmonic language, like a lot of Bush (he's studied under Ireland), and I find there's a tinge of Hindemith as well. But the piece is possibly best known for the story attaching to the choral finale, with words by Randolph Swingler (nothing to do with the Swingle Singers) exhorting the working people of the world to overthrow the capitalist system so arousing the audience at the premiere that conductor Sir Adrian Boult was moved to order that the orchestra strike up the National Anthem without a moment's delay!

Indeed - and that Swingler poem is little short of ghastly doggerel, in my view, not because of the thrust behind its sentiments but because of the penny-dreadful manner of its expression; it begins by interrupting the proceedings as though in imitation of Beethoven 9's finale with
"Friends, we would speak a little of this performance.
You have heard the intricate orchestra,
The warm horns curled like snails, the cunning flutes,
The sweep and shiver of the violins,
Intense and varied as the play of your own nerves.
You have heard the Piano
Vaunting its brilliance before the chorus.
We here, in trained co-operation, spinning the pattern;
..."
You get my drift, I imagine.

"Little, but not little enough, is known of the music of P.D.Q. Bach", as some blurb once had it; well, in like vein, little, but not little enough, is spoken of the performance of the Bush concerto once Mr Swingler swings into versification. The warmth of the horns is mentioned but, for all the quality of utterance, it might as well have been the water-emptying that players do. What was supposedly cunning about the flutes' activities is something upon which I'll refrain from speculation, if the violins were shivering maybe the heating in Broadcasing House failed on the March evening of that première and, as the members of chorus are silent for the first 40+ minutes of the work, it might be argued that the piano vaunting its brilliance before them until almost the last minute seems to have cut little ice with them. It's quite an achievement on Bush's part that he still somehow contrives to rescue it from itself.

That said, Boult's legendary misbehaviour as the work's première was greeted, so I understand, with considerable warm-hearted applause, was probably one his the most heinous examples of professional misconduct on his part - and deeply insulting, with Bush himself still seated before the piano.

But don't let this put anyone off; it really is a great concerto but it will likely remain underappreciated until someone makes a recording of it (its finale may, however, be listened to at http://www.alanbushtrust.org.uk/list...oConcerto4.mp3 - the site doesn't mention the performers but I presume that they're Rolf Hind and BBCSO/Slatkin, when most of the rehearsal time was apparently devoted to the one work the occupied the first half of the concert, Tippett's Second Symphony rather than to the concerto that none of them will previously have played or probably even heard).

The well-known Communist Sorabji admired it very much; indeed, the friendship between the two composers that lasted until Sorabji's death almost half a century later arose from that première, although I imagine that Sorabji's old friend Ireland might have earlier mentioned Bush, his student, to him. Bush gave Sorabji a facsimile of the full score and, many years later, Sorabji gave it to me, urging me to practise it! (did he think I was a pianist?)...

[ahinton]

The version I am lucky enough to have on a cassette was given on R3 at the Maida Vale Studios as part of a 70th anniversary Invitation Concert series for the BBCSO, with Tippett's Symphony No 2 occupying the first half, and Rolf Hind, baritone singer Ashley Holland and the Apollo Voices with the BBCSO under Slatkin. And very good it is too. It was preceded with a rebroadcast programme about Bush in which the wonderful John Amis reminisced about his memories of the composer, whose recorded voice with its stentorian tone from a 1960 interview was also heard.

I think it should be Maida Valeable.

Brilliant! And yes.

[Nick Armstrong]

I think it should be Maida Valeable.

Sorry - where's me coat?

I'll buy you a new one - that's a great gag (cue vinteuil about the vulgarity of puns... )

Worth starting the thread for that alone.

And some good ideas for British PCs to pursue. Many of those suggested I know and quite like. No one really seems to share my enthusiasm for old Charlie's, though

[mrbouffant]

Anyone mention Mr Rawsthorne yet?

[ahinton]

I'll buy you a new one - that's a great gag (cue vinteuil about the vulgarity of puns... )

Worth starting the thread for that alone.

And some good ideas for British PCs to pursue. Many of those suggested I know and quite like. No one really seems to share my enthusiasm for old Charlie's, though

Peter Donohoe inaugurated an ongoing series of British piano concerto recordings in 2001 (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_D..._%28pianist%29) and, assuming that this is still a work in progress, who knows what gems might emerge?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

INo one really seems to share my enthusiasm for old Charlie's, though

Well, Edgey said he loved it in #10.

[antongould]

Thanks for this Rumpole, I didn't know the PC but I have listened to the Collins a couple of times on Deezer and find I really like it. Like ER I must admit that I have a soft spot for the PCs of British composers - the Ireland always having been a favourite. I must try the Tippett.........

[ahinton]

A pianist whom I have know for many years named his son Stanford; when I asked him why, he said "because I didn't want him to be a musician".

My coat's already on.

As you were...

Oh, and John Ogdon's piano concerto is, I think, one of his best works, notwithstanding its Shostabartókofieturian whiffs (this is Ogdon's first piano concerto - there's apparently a second one but it's never been performed and I know nothing of it).

[Nick Armstrong]

Well, Edgey said he loved it in #10.

So he did, so he did, mea culpa!

Thanks for this Rumpole, I didn't know the PC but I have listened to the Collins a couple of times on Deezer and find I really like it. Like ER I must admit that I have a soft spot for the PCs of British composers - the Ireland always having been a favourite. I must try the Tippett.........

A pianist whom I have know for many years named his son Stanford; when I asked him why, he said "because I didn't want him to be a musician".

My coat's already on.

Did you just make that up, ah?

[ahinton]

Did you just make that up, ah?

Only the bit about the coat! Scout's honour, sir!

[Suffolkcoastal]

The Stanford is a good piece and highly enjoyable, but in IMO not his finest work, the Clarinet Concerto is his Concerto masterpiece, I would also place the Parry Concerto higher. As for the other Concertos, the Ireland is lovely but perhaps not a complete masterpiece, the Bliss is one of the best but fiendishly difficult to play. Britten's Concerto is not among his best pieces, nor are the Alwyn Concertos. The Howells concertos though are far more interesting and up with the best. The RVW is very underrated, its status would be much higher had not Ashley Wass crucified it at the 2008 Proms. The Tippett Concerto is a masterpiece and highly individual, Tippett's writing for the piano is very different, challenging but utterly absorbing. The two Rawsthorne Concertos are terrific pieces and among the very best written in this country IMO. We shouldn't rule out the Mathias Concertos either or the Robert Simpson concerto. The Delius I enjoy, no masterpiece but very distinct, as I do the Sterndale Bennett Concertos, which are delightful and far from negligable. The Alan Bush I'm afraid I don't rate highly, for me it just doesn't come off. The Rubbra suffers from being difficult to grasp, and is one Concerto that needs several listenings to really get into. Two works, though not called Concertos are far more significant and very underrated, Bax's Symphonic Variations and Winter Legends both very demanding for the pianist, but utterly fascinating works.

[AmpH]

For reasons I've never really been able to pin down, I've always liked the Piano Concerto by Richard Rodney Bennett on this fine Lyrita disc.



....... but I can't remember coming across anyone else who likes it though

[mrbouffant]

How about the Constant Lambert? Spiky.