Alan Rawsthorne - Piano Concertos Nos.1 and 2; Double Piano Concerto

 

Alan RAWSTHORNE (1905-1971)

Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra (1939, revised 1942) 

Concerto No. 2 for Piano and Orchestra (1951) 

Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra* (1968) 

Geoffrey Tozer (piano); *Tamara Cislowska (piano)

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Matthias Bamert

rec. Goldsmith’s College, New Cross, London, 1-2 August 1992. DDD.

I readily admit to being a fan of Rawsthorne’s music.  Perhaps that’s partly attributable to his friendship with fellow Lancastrian Walton, whose music I also like very much, or maybe it’s because he was born in Haslingden, a few miles from my home town of Blackburn.  He was not a prolific composer, so the fact that it is possible to get to know most of his output in a short space may also be part of the appeal.  Be that as it may, all the music on this recording has a ready appeal, even the Concerto for Two Pianos, written late in the composer’s life and decidedly angular in places. 

The First Concerto was composed in a version for chamber orchestra in 1939 and revised in 1942 for full orchestra.  It manages to be music both ready in its appeal and with something to say – its ambiguous tonality makes no concessions to popularity but it isn’t a ‘difficult’ work and it’s certainly not full of wartime gloom. 

Nine years later he achieved the same combination in the Second Concerto, written for the Festival of Britain and performed in the new Festival Hall by Clifford Curzon.  If you have heard anything by Rawsthorne, it’s likely to be the popular Street Corner overture (included on the Lyrita recording); the Piano Concertos don’t quite have that immediacy of appeal, but they would make a logical next step in getting to know this neglected composer.  I know that I keep referring to composers such as Rawsthorne and Rubbra as unjustly neglected, but it really is true that their music really is much more worthwhile than is generally realised.  Thanks to Chandos, Lyrita and Naxos for appreciating that – but remember that they can’t go on doing so without our support.  You could express that support by buying any one of the three excellent versions of these concertos. 

Geoffrey Tozer is a very able soloist, very well partnered by Tamara Cislowska in the Concerto for Two Pianos – I couldn’t tell who was playing which part.  With good orchestral support and good recording, this is most recommendable.  I cannot speak for the mp3 version on this occasion, but I have had no problems with other Chandos recordings which I have downloaded as mp3s, even at the lower 192kbps bit-rate.  Whichever version you may choose to download, it’s worth taking the offer of linking the last two tracks, where the music is continuous, to avoid a short gap – and beware of Windows media-player’s annoying habit of inserting a 2-second gap between tracks when burning: play, burn a CDR or sync from another programme if you can. 

Tozer and Bamert’s tempi are midway between those of Donohoe and Yuasa on Naxos (8.555959), who are consistently slightly faster, and those of Binns/Braithwaite on Lyrita, who are noticeably slower throughout.  Without making detailed comparisons – which tell only part of the story, anyway – both the Chandos and Naxos versions seemed completely right within their own contexts.