John Addison, Gordon Jacob, Edmund Rubbra

British Piano Concertos, Vol. 2

Simon Callaghan, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Stephen Bell, George Vass

SRCD-416
1 CD
Barcode: 5020926041623
Release Date: 01/09/2023

Jacob’s Piano Concerto no.2 in E flat was completed in 1957 and premiered on 11 July of that year at the Winter Gardens, Bournemouth by the soloist Edith Vogel. A Proms performance took place at the Royal Albert Hall (1957) with the same soloist. A review in The Times of the 1957 Proms performance of Gordon Jacob’s Piano Concerto No.2 declared that ‘the composer’s masterly understanding of the orchestra enables him to express each idea economically and in the most clean and attractive colours’. Addison’s Variations for Piano and Orchestra was written in 1948 and revised the following year. The work is written for a small orchestra, comprising double woodwind, four horns, a pair each of trumpets and trombones, bass trombone, timpani, modest percussion and strings. Though the piano had played a prominent role in an earlier student piece by Rubbra, his Piano Concerto, Op.30 (1932) is the composer’s first fully-fledged, large-scale work for soloist and orchestra. The score features an elaborate solo part and requires substantial orchestral forces.