Rheinberger & Scholz: Piano Concertos (Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto 76)

Chronique

Hyperion's ongoing Romantic Piano Concerto series reaches its 76th volume, with no sign of slowing down. The series as a whole has been invaluable in setting out the context in which listeners of the 19th century would have heard famous works, and this one sets the stage for how the Beethoven-Brahms axis persisted while facing competition from Liszt and lesser virtuosi. The models for these two works are the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73, for Rheinberger's Piano Concerto in A flat major, Op. 94, and the Brahms Piano Concerto in B flat major, Op. 83, for the Piano Concerto in B major, Op. 57. Rheinberger's music is performed from time to time, but Scholz is all but unknown, and his concerto receives its recorded premiere here. It would be wrong to say that the work matches Brahms' intricate weaving of solo and tutti, but it does evoke it, and the notes by Bryce Morrison explain why this was important: The concertos that one thinks of today as the hits were not necessarily hits when they appeared, and those of Brahms and Tchaikovsky had plenty of detractors. Scholz was a champion of Brahms, and in his delicately lyrical slow movement he comes close to hitting the Brahms mark. Pianist Simon Callaghan is smooth in the Rheinberger, which is the more virtuosic of the two works, and he gets fine support from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ben Gernon, with Hyperion operating in the unspectacular but wholly appropriate sound environment of the Glasgow City Halls. Recommended.

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