Composer: Kenneth Leighton
Performer: Howard Shelley
Orchestra: BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Conductor: Martyn Brabbins
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Chandos
Catalogue: CHAN10608
Release: 2010
Size: 1.24 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Symphony No. 1, Op. 42
01. I. Lento ma non troppo – Movendosi un poco di piu – Piu sostenuto – Ardente – Piu largo. Maestoso e sostenuto – Tempo giusto alla fine
02. II. Allegro molto ed impetuoso – Piu animato – Molto cantabile
03. III. Molto adagio e sostenuto – Piu sostenuto – Declamato – A tempo. Sempre sostenuto – Sostenuto – Tempo giusto
Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 57
04. I. Introduction and allegro. Lento maestoso
05. II. Pastoral. Adagio, delicato e lontano
06. III. Final Variations. Allegro molto e brillante
This is the third volume in Chandos’ latest championing of the music of Kenneth Leighton, presenting two further premiere recordings. The previous volume, including Symphony No. 2 (Sinfonia mistica), received tremendous critical acclaim, earning a Rosette in the latest Penguin Guide to Recorded Music. It was a Critic’s Choice in the December 2009 issue of Gramophone, Andrew Achenbach writing: ‘Chandos’ most valuable exploration of Kenneth Leighton’s large-scale output continues with this exhilarating coupling… Miss at your peril.’ International Record Review wrote: ‘I cannot do better than urge this new release on all those with ears to hear. For Leighton’s Sinfonia mistica is, I humbly submit, indeed a masterpiece.’
This latest volume includes the very successful First Symphony, completed in 1964, which won first prize in the 1965 City of Trieste international competition for a new symphonic work. It received its British premiere in October 1967 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Charles Groves. In three movements, it is the only Leighton symphony to employ purely orchestral forces. The composer says that the opening movement ‘sets a mood of elegiac lyricism, and eventually becomes a strong, even desperate protest’, while the second movement, a vibrant scherzo, ‘loosens the reins, and on a spirit of rebellion seeks to arrive at an affirmative answer by sheer force of will’. He describes the final movement as the ‘expressive essence of the symphony… a movement of great beauty’.
The Third Piano Concerto was written in 1968 when the composer succeeded Edmund Rubbra as a fellow of Worcester College, Oxford. Leighton wrote: ‘On the whole the music is more relaxed, more lyrical, and certainly more tonal than that of the previous two piano concertos. And there is also much less emphasis on counterpoint and more on vertical sonorities. Its three movements follow the traditional fast – slow – fast form.’ The central Pastoral evokes ‘the warmth and stillness of a long hot summer afternoon… with a more agitated and dance like central section’. The final movement comprises a set of variations, based on the main theme of the work.
One of the most famous and recorded of pianists in the world today, Howard Shelley receives unanimous critical acclaim for his many recordings, whether on Chandos or other labels. Like the conductor, Martyn Brabbins, he has championed much rarely performed repertoire, this disc being only his his latest example.