After three solo recordings, virtuoso pianist Paul Wee brings us two forgotten concertos from the Romantic period with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Michael Collins. Premiered by Clara Schumann under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn, Adolph von Henselt’s Concerto in F minor was once performed by the greatest virtuosos of the 19th and 20th centuries. However, it has inexplicably disappeared from the repertoire despite its obvious qualities: soaring melodies and tender lyricism, colorful orchestration, dramatic intensity across its three movements, and piano writing of astounding inventiveness and brilliance. The similarities between Henselt’s concerto and some of Sergei Rachmaninov’s works can be explained by the profound influence the German composer had on the Russian.
Hans von Bronsart’s Concerto in F sharp minor did not enjoy the same public acclaim, although it is rousing, intimate, and electrifying in turns. The richness of its orchestration is matched by an uncommonly brilliant piano part that exemplifies practical virtuosity. Breathing late-Romanticism, it requires a soloist to embrace its superheated Romantic language unashamedly if its passions are to take flight.
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