STENHAMMAR : Concerto No 1, Op 1 • Concerto No 2, Op 23 (Seta Tanyel · Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra · Andrew Manze) (2009) Serie The Romantic Piano Concerto – 49 | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Welcome to a genuinely outstanding disc in the Romantic Piano Concerto series. Sometimes the works found along the unfrequented byways of the Romantic piano tradition can exhibit no more than surface brilliance, but that cannot be said of these two splendid concertos by Stenhammar, recorded for the first time together on one CD.

The original orchestration of Stenhammar’s Piano Concerto No 1 is recorded here: a version which was long thought lost when the publishers were bombed during the second world war – a copy of the original was discovered in the Library of Congress in 1983. The twenty-two year old’s Opus 1 is a masterpiece, majestic and virtuosic at its opening; bringing the listener into a world of Nordic mystery at the start of the third movement; the finale ending with music of sad, reflective sweetness. The second concerto is a distinctly different work, with an novel, some have said ‘improvised’, structure, and a sense of tension between soloist and orchestra which is only resolved in the glorious virtuosic finale.

Hyperion is delighted to present the distinguished musician Andrew Manze in his new incarnation as a conductor. Directing the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, he is truly a force to be reckoned with. Pianist Seta Tanyel has featured on previous RPC recordings, always gaining the highest critical acclaim; however her magnificent playing on this new disc transcends her previous achievements. Hyperion

Wilhelm Stenhammar (1871-1927)

Piano Concerto No 1 In B Flat Major Op 1 (Original Version)    (45:53)

Piano Concerto No 2 In D Minor Op 23    (29:21)

Credits :
Conductor, Liner Notes – Andrew Manze
Orchestra – Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra
Piano – Seta Tanyel

WIKLUND : Piano Concerto No 1, Op 10 • Piano Concerto No 2, Op 17 • Konsertstycke, Op 1 (Martin Sturfält · Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra · Andrew Manze) (2012) Serie The Romantic Piano Concerto – 57 | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Volume 57 in Hyperion’s Romantic Piano Concerto series turns up another ‘discovery’: the music of Swedish composer Adolf Wiklund. These little-known but lusciously tuneful works are characterized by big-boned, symphonic gestures reminiscent of Rachmaninov, yet tempered with the Nordic clarity of Grieg. Wiklund’s two piano concertos are central to his output, and in fact they enjoyed considerable popularity in Sweden until as recently as fifty years ago, when modernist sensibilities deemed them unfashionable.
This glittering performance from Martin Sturfält and the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, directed by brilliant violinist-turned-conductor Andrew Manze, is bound to bring this unfairly neglected music back into general currency. Hyperion
Tracklist :
Piano Concerto No 1 In E Minor Op 10    (32:41)
Composed By – Adolf Wiklund

Konsertstycke In C Major Op 1    16:06
Composed By – Adolf Wiklund

Piano Concerto No 2 In B Minor Op 17    (26:10)
Composed By – Adolf Wiklund
Credits :
Conductor – Andrew Manze
Leader – Fredrik Burstedt
Orchestra – Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra
Piano, Liner Notes – Martin Sturfält

DUBOIS : Concerto-capriccioso • Concerto No 2 • Suite for piano & string orchestra (Cédric Tiberghien · BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra · Andrew Manze) (2013) Serie The Romantic Piano Concerto – 60 | FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

This release is the 60th in an ongoing series, with no end in sight, devoted to the Romantic piano concerto. Hyperion has uncovered lots of music that can shake up the repertory of the same dozen concertos that get played and recorded repeatedly, and this outing contains music that's at least diverting and often more. Théodore Dubois was an established composer of his time, and thus was discarded when modernist orthodoxy required narratives of progress. But he was far from merely academic. The three works here span 40 years, and each treats inherited forms with an attractive freedom. The opening Concerto capriccioso in C minor of 1876 is the most conservative of the group, but its wandering slow introduction is languidly pleasant. The Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, from 1897, is in the Saint-Saëns orbit, but its four-movement form, with a fantasia rather than a triumphal flourish for its finale, is novel. Still more interesting is the Suite for piano and string orchestra, written in 1917 when Dubois was 80. It is quite a modern work, not harmonically but formally, breaking up the opposition between piano and orchestra in a series of small lyrical moments that bring to mind Milhaud or Poulenc. Would that every composer were so open to new influences at that age! French pianist Cédric Tiberghien gets the virtuosity level right (high, but never showy), and conductor Andrew Manze, stepping out of his Baroque field of specialty, gets properly clean, restrained results from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. A fine offbeat find for lovers of French music, although except in the final work Dubois is more Germanic than French. James Manheim  
Tracklist :
Concerto-Capriccioso In C Minor (1876)    16:18
Composed By – Théodore Dubois

Piano Concerto No 2 In F Minor (1897)    (27:59)
Composed By – Théodore Dubois

Suite For Piano And String Orchestra In F Minor (1917)    (21:05)
Composed By – Théodore Dubois
Credits :
Conductor – Andrew Manze
Leader – Laura Samuel
Orchestra – BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Piano – Cédric Tiberghien