Rawsthorne: Piano Concertos

"Geoffrey Tozer is a very able soloist, very well partnered by Tamara Cislowska in the Concerto for Two Pianos - I couldn't tell who was playing which part. With good orchestral support and good recording, this is most recommendable."
(MusicWeb July 2008)

All Rawsthorne's keyboard concertos on a single CD and represents an extension of an already substantial 20th-Century English music list.

This is an absorbing coupling of the two solo piano concertos with the concerto for two pianos of the British composer Alan Rawsthorne, performed by the LPO under the direction of Matthias Bamert. On original release these recordings provoked a positive revaluation of these works of Rawsthorne, whose highly distinctive voice never lost its integrity.

The piano concertos are typical of Rawsthorne's concise, brilliant, muscular style. Piano Concerto No.2 has been described as the finest piano concerto ever written by an Englishman, and yet few people know it, or have heard of it! Tozer performs the Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra with Tamara Cislowski, the leading Australian pianist of her generation, and their work makes for sheer delight. The piano parts are formidably difficult and the speed and accuracy which Rawsthorne demands from his soloists suits Tozer's and Cislowska's technique and fearless temperament perfectly.

This unostentatious yet finely wrought music deserves an honoured place in this repertoire and the CD will make a wonderful addition to the collection of lovers of English music of the twentieth century.

Reviews:

'Reviews from original release:
Tozer is a man clearly as much in sympathy with the music as he is master of its not inconsiderable technical difficulties.'
Gramophone

'Bamert, who is fast becoming a champion of neglected British music, draws some superlative playing from the London Philharmonic.'
BBC Music Magazine

'Vitality and sparkling cleverness, with glimpses of richer and stranger worlds. Excellent recordings, atmospheric but clear.'
The Independent