Danacord's Danish Piano Concertos series:
Vol. 1 Siegfried
Langgaard - Rued Langgaard
Vol. 2 August
Winding - Emil Hartmann
This is a resoundingly
successful follow-up to the first two
volumes in Danacord's superb ‘Danish
Piano Concertos’ series.
The Malling is
a work of confident high-water romanticism
in an idiom derived from the Schumann
Concerto but with infusions from Brahms’
Second Concerto. The second movement
is a superbly serene nocturne with a
sincerely ingenuous Dvořákian
lyricism. From here to the moonlight
pastoral of a work like Schoeck's Sommernacht
is no great stride. The joyously
tripping gopak of a finale storms along
with Marshev firing on all twelve cylinders.
Here, in addition to the derring-do
which is the stock-in-trade of the Second
Piano Concertos of Tchaikovsky and Saint-Saëns,
Malling treats us to a lovely counter-melody.
Schytte's grand
manner romanticism is also most distinctive.
Like the Malling there are suggestions
of the influence of the Grieg Concerto
both in the first movement and in the
honeyed and suave Intermezzo.
A pounding finale carries style elements
from both Liszt and Tchaikovsky. Certainly
not vapid display stuff; fully enjoyable.
While Malling also
has a symphony to his name (let's hear
it please) and Schytte a lanky piano
sonata in B flat major, the much later
Salomon has an extensive work-list.
There are six string quartets, a wind
quintet, concertos for violin (1916)
and cello (1958), a cello sonata, two
symphonies (1916 and 1920) and the travelogue
orchestral suites Italia (1922)
and Palestina (1924), not to
mention the operas The Dove and the
Snake (1925), Queen Dagmar (1928)
and the most successful Leonora Christina
(1926) which clocked up 79 performances
over the fourteen years from 1928.
Salomon's late-romantic
style fitted him like a glove and he
was not going to change it. His 1947
Piano Concerto stuck with determination
to the Rachmaninovian idiom. The work's
opening gesture is pure Warsaw Concerto;
grand romantic gestures are the order
of the day. The middle movement is a
contented soliloquy close at times to
Dvořák.
The finale is emphatically optimistic
and the overall effect is likely to
appeal to you if you enjoy the Moeran
Rhapsody No. 3 (piano and orchestra),
the Rozsa Spellbound Concerto
and the Stanford Second Piano Concerto.
Marshev is fully the
equal of the challenges of these three
fine and neglected late and early romantic
works.
The recording team
have produced a manifestly pleasing
sound-picture the delicacy of which
can best be appreciated by hearing the
silky Notturno from the Malling
or the Lisztian bravura and tick-chaff
strings in the finale of the Schytte.
Outstanding documentation
as usual from Mogens Wenzel Andreasen.
He holds, in relation to Danish music,
the same affectionately respected position
as Lewis Foreman in writing about the
neglected musicians of the British musical
renaissance.
Three fascinating romantic
piano concertos. Maybe in its finale
the Salomon does meander and revel in
bombast but the Malling and Schytte
are enduringly and deeply enjoyable
discoveries.
Rob Barnett
Oleg Marshev (piano) 
