Vaughan Williams - Piano Concerto; The Wasps

Ralph VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872-1958) 

The Wasps (Aristophanic Suite)

Concerto for Piano and Orchestra

English Folk Song Suite (orch. Gordon Jacob)

The Running Set

Ashley Wass, Piano

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

James Judd

recorded in the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, England, on 27th and 28th, January 2009

The Piano Concerto of Vaughan Williams has been seriously undervalued, from the unsuccessful first performance onwards. It is true that the writing for the soloist could hardly be less pianistic, thick with notes. That is what led the composer to sanction a version for two pianos and orchestra, though latterly pianists have found the original far less daunting than was originally thought.

Written in the mid-1920s, it looks forward in many ways to the radical developments in the composer’s style which erupted in the ballet music for Job and above all in the abrasive Fourth Symphony. Early critics complained about its dissonance but that is hardly likely to worry anyone today; and a performance as fine as this one from Ashley Wass will simply have one marvelling at the originality of the piece and its distinctive slant on the idea of a piano concerto.

This fine performance, superbly recorded in clean, perfectly balanced sound, brings up some strange, unexpected echoes, as for example in the finale there is a hint of Ravel’s La valse. One point that may help to explain the work’s failure to be appreciated is that instead of ending with a bang, as most piano concertos do, it fades down to nothing, surprising one that it has finished. None the less Wass, James Judd and the RLPO carry that off most effectively.

The other works on the disc make an attractive programme, with the five movements of the suite from VW’s incidental music to The Wasps, introduced by its superb overture, crisply presented. Gordon Jacob’s arrangement of the brief English Folk Song Suite makes a colourful filler, rounded off with a piece in a similar folky vein, The Running Set. Naxos again offers a disc of the highest quality at superbudget price.

Gramophone