Henri Herz - Piano Concerto No.2 and other works
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Label: Hyperion - Romantic Piano Concertos
Cat No: CDA68100
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Orchestral
Release Date: 31st July 2015
Contents
Works
Fantaisie et variations sur la marche d'Otello de Rossini, op.67Grande fantaisie militaire sur 'La fille du regiment', op.163
Grande polonaise brillante, op.30
Piano Concerto no.2 in C minor, op.74
Artists
Howard Shelley (piano)Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Howard ShelleyWorks
Fantaisie et variations sur la marche d'Otello de Rossini, op.67Grande fantaisie militaire sur 'La fille du regiment', op.163
Grande polonaise brillante, op.30
Piano Concerto no.2 in C minor, op.74
Artists
Howard Shelley (piano)Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Conductor
Howard ShelleyAbout
The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol.66
Henri Herz - as much a phenomenon in 1830s Paris and for the ensuing decades in America as he has been derided since the curtain fell on his world of sparkle - wrote eight piano concertos. One is lost, so it is for the final time in this mini series that Howard Shelley and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra here get to put on their finest dancing shoes and perform the Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor (the one with which Herz conquered America in 1846) and three extended fantasies.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Piano Concerto no.2 - I. Allegro moderato
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2Piano Concerto no.2 - Andantino cantabile con molt'espressione
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3Piano Concerto no.2 - III. Rondo - Allegro vivo
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4Grande Fantaisie Militaire sur La Fille du Regiment
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5Fantaisie and Variations sur La Marche d'Otello de Rossini
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6Grande Polonaise Brillante
Europadisc Review
Those already familiar with Shelley's Herz performances will certainly snap it up, but for those whose attention they've managed to escape, a little background may be helpful. Born in Vienna in 1803, Herz relocated to Paris in 1816 to study at the Conservatoire, and the French capital became his permanent home. His playing was a phenomenon, especially the apparent ease with which he played technically demanding passagework, and both he and his music won a huge following. He toured not just Europe but South America and the United States to great acclaim, one influential critic writing that, 'It seems almost impossible to conceive of anything more perfect than Herz's mastery of his instrument.'
For all his successes, Herz was derided by Schumann, yet he managed to have a highly successful career, even becoming a noted piano manufacturer and building a concert hall the Salle des Concerts Herz on the Rue de la Victoire. His output includes numerous fantasies on popular operas of the day, as well as eight piano concertos. Yet by the time of his death in 1888 the attitude to such music as his melodically engaging and pianistically entertaining but lacking in 'profundity' was beginning to change, and for many years his music lay neglected, presumed too superficial to warrant revival.
The Romantic Piano Concerto series has done much to change that, giving a welcome and long overdue boost to the available Herz discography, and this disc is no exception. The Second Piano Concerto (1830) is the work with which Herz wowed audiences in America in the 1840s, and it's easy to hear why. From the keyboard acrobatics of the first movement, via the second movement's reverie, to the brilliant repeated notes and headlong final dash of the concluding Rondo, this is music that enchants and dazzles. The Concerto's first New York audience repeatedly burst into rounds of applause during this last movement, but Herz no doubt mindful of its considerable technical demands refused their pleas it to be encored.
Even more than his concertos, Herz was famed for his opera fantasias, and it was an excellent idea of Shelley's and Hyperion's to give us a taste of them here. Based on the hugely popular Donizetti aria 'Chacun le sait, chacun le dit', the Grande fantaise militaire sur La fille du regiment is a real delight, the bravura variations prefaced by an introduction and an ornate cadenza. Even more virtuosic is the earlier Fantaisie et variations sur la marche d'Otello de Rossini, replete with lightning-quick repeated notes and brilliant runs in thirds.
Rounding off proceedings is the Grande polonaise brillante of 1827, which predates Chopin's Grande polonaise, op.22, by some three years. Herz certainly has the measure of the Polish dance form, and it also gives us a good idea of the inimitable style with which he entertained Parisian audiences in his early years in the capital.
Herz's keyboard manner was renowned as much for its lack of outward show as for its brilliance: 'His touch so delicate, precise, and forcible, individualizing every note his running passages so smooth and even and the accomplishment of all this with less show than it costs an ordinary player to perform an easy piece.' They are comments that could equally apply to Howard Shelley and his Tasmanian players, models of good taste and refinement even when at their most bravura, and with a delicacy of touch and nuance that would elude most others. All in all, tremendously entertaining and rewarding!
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