The Naxos label's ambitious traversal of the music of British composer John Ireland continues here with two superb works for piano and orchestra, rounded out with a miscellany of largely minor early piano music. The Piano Concerto in E flat major, written in 1930, can fairly be called one of the most romantic (not Romantic) works of the 20th century. It delightfully modifies the structure of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73 ("Emperor"), with which its three movements share a key scheme. The structure ...
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The Naxos label's ambitious traversal of the music of British composer John Ireland continues here with two superb works for piano and orchestra, rounded out with a miscellany of largely minor early piano music. The Piano Concerto in E flat major, written in 1930, can fairly be called one of the most romantic (not Romantic) works of the 20th century. It delightfully modifies the structure of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73 ("Emperor"), with which its three movements share a key scheme. The structure is pushed away from heroic struggle and toward passion and lyricism, with the slow movement exemplifying a love dialogue and the finale exploding in exuberance with added percussion and brass; the textures and tonalities throughout might have been influenced by Prokofiev, but the effect is purely Ireland's own. Also attractive is the Legend for piano and orchestra of 1933, premiered by pianist Helen Perkin, who had been the object and dedicatee of the piano concerto. (The creative...
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