Britten: Piano Concerto / Violin Concerto

Product Description Tying in with the 100-year anniversary in 2013 of the composer's birth, we here present two such works, performed by the BBC Philharmonic under Edward Gardner with Chandos stars Tasmin Little and Howard Shelley. The Violin Concerto, here performed dazzlingly by Little, is essentially tragic and weighty in tone, perhaps reflecting his growing concern with the escalation of war-related hostilities. Under Shelley's fingers the Piano Concerto - in a rare recording with the original third movement, "Recitative and Aria" - is generally lighter and brighter, more transparent and simpler in style. Review ...there Howard Shelley and Edward Gardner create something marc mercurial, Gardner conjuring that lithe, high-tension drama he has so successfully achieved with Britten's stage works. The insouciant viola and clarinet solos which open the second movement 'Waltz' are irresistible, and Shelley moves from teasing to demonic as the movement begins to snarl... This may not be a flawless reading (some of Tasmin Little's double stopping being just short of immaculate), but Little and Gardner plumb its emotional heart in a performance of great passion and spontaneity. There's a sense nor just of supple flow from Little, but an incandescent commitment to the work. --Helen Wallace, BBC Music Mag Britten's Piano Concerto must surely be one of the greatest piano concertos of the twentieth century' - thus Howard Shelley's opening comment in his 'note from the performer' in the accompanying booklet, a comment which has never enjoyed universal agreement. Even today there are some who simply do not grasp what the work is about. But then, they haven't heard this performance. --International Record Review
ASIN: B00C30ZA64
VSKU: DBV.B00C30ZA64.A
Condition: Acceptable
Author/Artist:Benjamin Britten|Edward Gardner|BBC Philharmonic|Tasmin Little|Howard Shelley
Binding: Audio cd
Note: Any images shown are stock photographs and product may differ from what is shown.
Condition Notes: Individually inspected: Guaranteed to play perfectly or your money back. Case will show wear, and may be in library packaging. Ships fast!