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Track Listings
| 1. The Wasps (Aristophanic Suite) |
| 2. Piano Concerto in C |
| 3. English Folk Song Suite (orch. Gordon Jacob) |
| 4. The Running Set |
Product Description
Review
''[The Piano Concerto] receives passionate endorsement from Wass… and the commitment from the RLPO ,too, is palpable… the Concerto is rightly the centrepiece here, and approving VW enthusiasts will naturally want this for their shelves……Andrew Burn provides an exemplary note.'' --IRR (Piers Burton-Page, December 2009)
...a performance as fine as this one from Ashley Wass will simply have one marvelling at the originality of the piece and its distinctive slant on the idea of a piano concerto. This fine performance superbly recorded in clean, perfectly balanced sound.....Naxos again offers a disc of the highest quality at superbudget price. --Gramophone, Dec. 2009
''Wass's commanding way with the solo part is beautifully poised…James Judd secures orchestral accompaniments of brilliant colour and focus… The recorded sound, too, finds an ideal balance between capturing precise detail and the broader spaces around it.'' --BBC Music Magazine (Malcolm Hayes, December 2009)
...a performance as fine as this one from Ashley Wass will simply have one marvelling at the originality of the piece and its distinctive slant on the idea of a piano concerto. This fine performance superbly recorded in clean, perfectly balanced sound.....Naxos again offers a disc of the highest quality at superbudget price. --Gramophone, Dec. 2009
''Wass's commanding way with the solo part is beautifully poised…James Judd secures orchestral accompaniments of brilliant colour and focus… The recorded sound, too, finds an ideal balance between capturing precise detail and the broader spaces around it.'' --BBC Music Magazine (Malcolm Hayes, December 2009)
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a great performance and recording of Vaughan Williams's underrated craggily poetic Piano Concerto. The work comes across here with a greater sense of urgency than usual. The Piano Concerto emerges as a darker, more threatening work than in earlier recordings, with clear pre-echoes of Symphony No 4 (composed a few years later). The CD includes a fine performance of the lyrical English Folk Song Suite in its orchestral version (orch. Gordon Jacob) - the middle movement is especially beautiful (more dance-like than usual in its central section). Also featured are the Wasps Suite and the delightful, entirely characteristic, Running Set (best performance I've heard of this too - more urgency and less 'folk-songy' than before). All credit to Ashley Wass, the RLPO and James Judd. Although the Piano Concerto is not one of VW's best known works this CD would, in many ways, be a great introduction to his music as it demonstrates the many sides of Vaughan Williams's creative genius.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is mostly unfamiliar RVW. It starts with a great recording of the one familiar piece-the Wasps Overture This is played with style in the opening fast passage and slows right down for the second subject.
Ashley Wass' playing of the concerto is full of energy and ably accompanied by the RLPO under Jeremy Judd. Might this man take on the the mantle of Vernon Handley and Richard Hickox in championing the lesser known by-ways of English Music?
The CD ends with a group of English country dances which would leave the dancers breathless! Altogether stunning!
Ashley Wass' playing of the concerto is full of energy and ably accompanied by the RLPO under Jeremy Judd. Might this man take on the the mantle of Vernon Handley and Richard Hickox in championing the lesser known by-ways of English Music?
The CD ends with a group of English country dances which would leave the dancers breathless! Altogether stunning!
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
The link combining the disparate numbers on this Naxos record is the folk-song inspiration by which Ralph Vaughan Williams was aroused, as so many other composers of his generation. It offers an unpretentious and basic presentation of the popular Aristophanic Suite from the incidental music for The Wasps. These are the kindest of wasps ever composed indeed, and to tell the truth, there isn't much of a mischievously witty Aristophanic character either, just something endlessly amiable and entertaining, and well - though a bit routine-likely (a very slow Overture!) - played by Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra with James Judd as conductor. Nice is the well-known English Folk Song Suite too, orchestrated by Gordon Jacob, with those pleasurable renderings of "Seventeen come Sunday" and "My Bonny Boy". "The Running Set" on the other hand is seldom heard or recorded, appearing to be a fairly ravishing piece, built on tunes like "Barrack Hill" and "Irish Reel" among others. Nice to have it on record!
The main item here, however, is the remarkable Piano Concerto in C, finished in 1930. and one of RVW's most original numbers. What a piano concerto it is! First a toccata in Allegro moderato, then a Romanza in a most seducing Lento, beautifully performed by Ashley Wass, the pianist, and the Liverpool Orchestra, and finally a Busoni-inspired Fuga cromatica con finale alla tedesca. Good gracious, what a break against all modern concerto traditions this is and how impressively it is carried out here, executed by a dare-devil pianist like Wass and a very pliable orchestra - this advanced and far from easily performed piece really demands a sensitive co-operation. So the concerto is solely good value for the pleasing Naxos price. And hopefully, this brilliant demonstration of the musical qualities of the concerto will be an incentive for great pianists to add it to their repertoire. It is well worth some more bold attempts!
The main item here, however, is the remarkable Piano Concerto in C, finished in 1930. and one of RVW's most original numbers. What a piano concerto it is! First a toccata in Allegro moderato, then a Romanza in a most seducing Lento, beautifully performed by Ashley Wass, the pianist, and the Liverpool Orchestra, and finally a Busoni-inspired Fuga cromatica con finale alla tedesca. Good gracious, what a break against all modern concerto traditions this is and how impressively it is carried out here, executed by a dare-devil pianist like Wass and a very pliable orchestra - this advanced and far from easily performed piece really demands a sensitive co-operation. So the concerto is solely good value for the pleasing Naxos price. And hopefully, this brilliant demonstration of the musical qualities of the concerto will be an incentive for great pianists to add it to their repertoire. It is well worth some more bold attempts!
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