Henselt & Bronsart - Piano Concertos
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Label: BIS
Cat No: BIS2715
Format: Hybrid SACD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Orchestral
Release Date: 31st May 2024
Contents
Works
Bronsart, Hans von (Bronsart von Schellendorf)
Piano Concerto in F sharp minor, op.10Piano Concerto in F minor, op.16
Artists
Paul Wee (piano)Swedish Chamber Orchestra
Conductor
Michael CollinsWorks
Bronsart, Hans von (Bronsart von Schellendorf)
Piano Concerto in F sharp minor, op.10Piano Concerto in F minor, op.16
Artists
Paul Wee (piano)Swedish Chamber Orchestra
Conductor
Michael CollinsAbout
After three solo recordings, virtuoso pianist Paul Wee brings us two forgotten concertos from the Romantic period with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Michael Collins.
Premièred by Clara Schumann under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn, Adolph von Henselt’s Concerto in F minor was eventually performed by the greatest virtuosos of the 19th and 20th centuries. It has, however, inexplicably disappeared from the repertoire despite its obvious qualities: soaring melodies and tender lyricism, colourful orchestration, dramatic intensity across its three movements and piano writing of astounding inventiveness and brilliance. The familiarity between Henselt’s concerto and some of Sergei Rachmaninov’s works can be explained by the profound influence that the German composer exerted on the Russian.
Hans von Bronsart’s Concerto in F sharp minor did not enjoy the same public acclaim, although it is rousing, intimate and electrifying in turns. The richness of its orchestration is matched by an uncommonly brilliant piano part that is a model of practical virtuosity. Breathing late-Romanticism, it requires a soloist to embrace its superheated Romantic language unashamedly if its passions are to take flight.
Premièred by Clara Schumann under the baton of Felix Mendelssohn, Adolph von Henselt’s Concerto in F minor was eventually performed by the greatest virtuosos of the 19th and 20th centuries. It has, however, inexplicably disappeared from the repertoire despite its obvious qualities: soaring melodies and tender lyricism, colourful orchestration, dramatic intensity across its three movements and piano writing of astounding inventiveness and brilliance. The familiarity between Henselt’s concerto and some of Sergei Rachmaninov’s works can be explained by the profound influence that the German composer exerted on the Russian.
Hans von Bronsart’s Concerto in F sharp minor did not enjoy the same public acclaim, although it is rousing, intimate and electrifying in turns. The richness of its orchestration is matched by an uncommonly brilliant piano part that is a model of practical virtuosity. Breathing late-Romanticism, it requires a soloist to embrace its superheated Romantic language unashamedly if its passions are to take flight.
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Henselt: Piano Concerto in F minor, op.16: 1. Allegro patetico – Religioso – Reprise
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2Henselt: Piano Concerto in F minor, op.16: 2. Larghetto
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3Henselt: Piano Concerto in F minor, op.16: 3. Allegro agitato
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4Bronsart: Piano Concerto in F sharp minor, op.10: 1. Allegro maestoso
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5Bronsart: Piano Concerto in F sharp minor, op.10: 2. Adagio ma non troppo
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6Bronsart: Piano Concerto in F sharp minor, op.10: 3. Allegro con fuoco
Europadisc Review
A high-flying commercial barrister by profession, Paul Wee has nevertheless carved a distinctive niche for himself as a pianist capable of scaling the heights of the Romantic virtuoso repertoire. His acclaimed debut on the BIS label just five years ago coupled two formidable works by Charles-Valentin Alkan, the Concerto and Symphony for solo piano. His follow-up album was scarcely less impressive: a two-disc set containing Sigismond Thalberg’s compendium of transcriptions L’Art du Chant appliqué au Piano, which was one of our Top Ten titles of 2020. More recently, he again attracted superlatives for his combination of Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony with Mozart’s Piano Concerto no.20, in the virtuoso solo transcriptions by Liszt and Alkan respectively.
Now for the first time on disc he teams up with an orchestra (the Swedish Chamber Orchestra under Michael Collins) for two concertante gems of the Romantic repertoire, by Henselt and Bronsart. Both works will be familiar to collectors of Hyperion’s Romantic Piano Concerto series. Adolph von Henselt’s F minor Piano Concerto, op.16, was once a staple of the concert halls for those pianists who could master its technical demands (among them, Clara Schumann, Liszt, Gottschalk, von Bülow, Sauer and Busoni), but faded from view after the early 1900s, revived in the 1960s by Ponti and Lewenthal, and recorded by Marc-André Hamelin in the 1990s. The F sharp minor Piano Concerto, op.10, by Hans Bronsart von Schellendorf never achieved Henselt’s popularity, but although somewhat less daunting for the soloist it makes just as much of a splash.
Both works find in Wee an ardent and technically superb champion. Henselt’s Concerto has moments of Chopinesque poetry (notably the outer sections of the central Larghetto), but what’s remarkable are the many passages that clearly anticipate the late Romanticism of Rachmaninov: less surprising when you know that Henselt spent a large part of his career as Court Pianist and Inspector General of music institutes in imperial Russia. His pupils included Nikolai Zverev, who in turn taught Rachmaninov, which may explain why several Henseltian thumbprints turn up in works like Rachmaninov’s Prelude, op.3 no.2, and Second Piano Concerto.
Wee has the measure of this work: the epic portentousness of the opening movement, with its religioso development section, the slow movement’s filigree as well as its imposingly sombre central section, and the ferocious octaves of the rip-roaring finale. The solo writing is enough to tax even the bravest of soloists, often spread over three or four staves, and with a reach as ambitious as Rachmaninov’s. Yet Wee also discovers the music’s poetry and a vast range of colour, and he’s partnered splendidly by the alert orchestral playing under Collins’s assured direction.
The relative obscurity of Bronsart’s Concerto is hard to fathom when you hear Wee’s performance. Though less self-consciously grandiose than Henselt, it opens with an arresting tutti in dotted rhythm which quickly gives way to a mini-cadenza for the soloist, complete with parallel trills that bring to mind Brahms’s First Piano Concerto of fifteen years earlier. There’s a greater poetic sensibility here than in the companion work, moments of greater reflectiveness, and Wee relaxes into them while maintaining a grip on the overall trajectory. The central Adagio ma non troppo, with its muted strings and solo cello, is a real gem, channeling such diverse influences as Liszt (thematic transformation) and Schubert (adventurous modulation and an easy lyricism).
Bronsart then caps this exquisite central panel with a marvellously spirited and bracingly episodic tarantella marked Allegro con fuoco (with shades of Litolff’s Scherzo). Wee, Collins and the Swedish players maintain a tight grip on proceedings while bringing the requisite degree of sparkle and élan. The throw-away ending is delicious, and it brings to a close an hour of superb pianism. Even those with the Hyperion recordings of these works in their collection will want to hear this fabulously performed and recorded disc. Paul Wee’s own notes compliment the performances perfectly, and this is yet another feather in his discographic cap!
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