Piano Concerto [with John Foulds-Dynamic Triptych]

"Edward Greenfield greeted this disc with much enthusiasm when it appeared on LP in 1984, and I echo, if not amplify his enthusiasm on its transfer to CD. To my mind there are four unequivocal masterpieces for piano and orchestra in English twentieth-century music: Bax's Winter Legends … Frank Bridge's Phantasm and the two works presented here. It is easy to see why the [Vaughan Williams] was so admired by Bartok when it received its German premiere … for this is surely one of the most cogent and tautly constructed examples of its genre. Howard Shelly's performance is scintillating and faultless. John Fould's Dynamic Triptych is scarcely less impressive. The slow movement is particularly striking both harmonically and texturally - crepuscular string passages and quarter-tone writing … and a powerful central section that looks forward in mood and atmosphere to Bernstein's Age of Anxiety. In sum, a work that definitely deserves more frequent hearings. As in the concerto Shelly plays like a demon and an angel with Vernon Handley and the RPO providing superb support. Excelletn CD transfers. An altogether outstanding reissue" Michael Stewart, Gramophone