MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW
RECORDING OF THE MONTH


Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
CD: Crotchet AmazonUK AmazonUS

 

Howard BLAKE (b. 1938)
Piano Concerto, op.412 (1990) [25:52]
Diversions, op.337 (1984) [20:45]
Toccata – A Celebration of the Orchestra, op.386 (1988) [21:44]
Howard Blake (piano), Robert Cohen (cello)
Philharmonia Orchestra/Sir David Willcocks (Concerto), Howard Blake (Diversions and Toccata)
rec. 19-21 December 1990, Sony Studios (Studio 1, The Hit Factory), Whitfield Street, London. DDD
reissue of CBS (Sony) HB3 23
SONY CLASSICS 88697376972 [68:21] 
Experience Classicsonline


For a composer with such an impressive body of work as Howard Blake it is scandalous that he should be known by only a few pieces – the most famous being his score for the animated film The Snowman. His music is readily approachable, quite often has a smile on its face (a characteristic of the composer himself), and his catalogue is frighteningly diverse, ranging from music for The Avengers ("A glass of champagne, Mrs Peel?") to scores for some 60 films, including Ridley Scott’s The Duellists (available on Airstrip One AOD HB 002), and far too much concert music to begin listing here. This year he turns 70 and shows no signs of slowing down, having recently completed a stunning String Quartet, named Spieltrieb, and started work on his 1st Symphony!

This is a timely re–issue, to coincide with his birthday on 28 October, featuring three concertos, one each for piano, cello and orchestra. The Piano Concerto was commissioned by the Philharmonia Orchestra to celebrate the 30th birthday of Princess Diana, who was the orchestra’s patron. Blake was promised a pianist of the calibre of Kissin as soloist so he wrote a true virtuoso work only to be told, as he reached the end of the composition that, as no–one was available, he would have to play it himself. He rose to the challenge, despite having never played a Piano Concerto in his life, and gave the première in the Royal Festival Hall, in London, shortly after making this recording.

In the usual three movements, and, as with his Violin Concerto (available on ASV CDDCA 905), the first movement takes up the bulk of the playing time, it is a joyous piece, starting with the simplest and most innocent of ideas – and what an idea it is, pregnant with possibilities – which returns in the finale and is transformed at first into a musical box idea, then a fugue and finally a rhumba! These two fast movements – Blake is a master at writing sustained fast music, which is none too easy and is seldom encountered in so much music of today – enclose a tender slow movement which truly has an heart of gold. The piano writing is of the most virtuoso kind, the orchestration is colourful and always interesting – just listen to the wonderful writing for brass – especially the horns – at the beginning of the recapitulation of the first movement. It sends shivers down my spine every time I hear it – which is often. Nobody can afford to miss this, one of the truly memorable Piano Concertos of the last century for it is fine stuff indeed. I will stick my neck out and say that, for me, it is the most sheerly joyous Piano Concerto since Ravel’s in G.

Blake talked quite extensively about the genesis of the work when I interviewed him recently.

The Diversions is a more serious and complicated work. Originally written for cello and piano, in 1973, it was a meeting with the great French cellist Maurice Gendron, eleven years later, which brought about a full scale concerto piece and the orchestration was completed in 1985. In eight movements, some very short, the work shows the cello off to great advantage in richly romantic music, the soloist quite often singing its heart out in wide ranging melodies or showing off its agility with rapid passage work. There’s an extended Aria (movement 5), a wonderfully Gallic Serenade (movement 6) and the work ends with a riotous finale. The cello repertoire still isn’t as big as it should be, given the amount of fine players around, and this is a valuable addition to the catalogue. Cohen is one of this country’s best players and he is grossly under represented on disk so it’s good to have this example of his work. He plays with total conviction, as if he’s been playing the work all his life, and it’s a thrilling performance, brilliantly accompanied by the Philharmonia.

To end, the orchestra itself comes under the spotlight. First the woodwind, with gloriously gamboling bassoons, entertain us, soon joined by the horns. Gradually all the various instruments join in until the full orchestra has entered the game. This, however, is no display piece in the manner of Young Person’s Guide or the Bartók Concerto for Orchestra. The tempo is fairly relaxed, there’s much humour – Blake is a very funny man and I can hear him now doing impressions or telling stories of the people he has known and worked with – and, in a way, it’s as much a portrait of the composer as it is a work celebrating the orchestra.

This disk must not be missed on any account for it contains music by a much under-rated composer whose voice is clear and well focused, who can communicate with his audience, can write fluently and with great confidence for the full orchestra and, best of all, knows how to entertain. The performances are magnificent, the sound gloriously full and rich and the notes from the original (1991) issue by the much missed Christopher Palmer, who also produced the disk, although out of date in some respects, are a lesson in how to write clearly and without fuss about music.

Beg, steal or borrow the money to buy this disk, for, once heard, you’ll not want to be without this marvellous music.

Bob Briggs

 

see also

Howard BLAKE Violin Concerto "The Leeds"; A Month in the Country; Sinfonietta for 10 brass instruments . Christiane Edinger (violin) English Northern Philharmonia conducted by Paul Daniel ASV CD DCA 905


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.