Information
Composer: Arnold Bax; John Ireland
- Bax - Concertino for Piano & Orchestra (orch. Graham Parlett)
- Ireland - Concerto for Piano & Orchestra in E flat
- Ireland - Legend for Piano & Orchestra
Mark Bebbington, piano
Orchestra of the Swan
David Curtis, conductor
Date: 2009
Label: SOMM Recordings
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This seems to be an age of completions. If a composer was unfortunate enough to die without finishing a piece some zealot will do it for him. It can be worthwhile, as with Elgar’s Third Symphony, and Graham Parlett has carried out another dedicated task with what Bax called a Concertino for piano and orchestra. In fact the work lasts half an hour and even though Bax described it as “a small concerto” for Harriet Cohen it’s a substantial work that accumulates some massive climaxes. Bax left it unfinished in 1939 because he was disillusioned about the war. Parlett had to decide most of the scoring and sometimes fill out the thin textures. There are beefy piano chords in the first movement and at times the writing sounds turgid. But there are many characteristic touches and the finale is insistently ebullient. Anyone interested in Bax will be fascinated.
The Ireland Concerto is inescapably associated with Eric Parkin, whose first recording was with Boult and the LSO in 1968. Surprisingly Bebbington takes a minute longer than Parkin for every movement in the Concerto as well as the eloquent Legend. There’s little impression of Bebbington dragging, although Boult cunningly moved things along from time to time. The rapt piano solos, such as the soloist’s entry in the slow movement, have the same mesmeric quality in both performances. This is vintage Ireland with a real melodic gift and harmonic textures that could come from no other composer.
The old Lyrita LP transferred well but Bebbington’s more modern sound is an asset. So is his total sympathy with the music, well supported by the Orchestra of the Swan. Ireland enthusiasts will rejoice.
-- Peter Dickinson, Gramophone
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Arnold Bax (8 November 1883 – 3 October 1953) was an English composer, poet, and author. His prolific output includes songs, choral music, chamber pieces, and solo piano works, but he is best known for his orchestral music. In addition to a series of symphonic poems, he wrote seven symphonies and was for a time widely regarded as the leading British symphonist. In his last years he found his music regarded as old-fashioned, and after his death it was generally neglected. From the 1960s onwards his music was gradually rediscovered, although little of it is regularly heard in the concert hall.
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John Ireland (13 August 1879 – 12 June 1962) was an English composer and teacher. He studied piano with Frederic Cliffe, organ with Walter Parratt, composition with Charles Villiers Stanford. From 1923 he taught at the Royal College of Music, where his pupils included Richard Arnell, Ernest John Moeran and Benjamin Britten, among others. As a composer, Ireland favoured small forms and wrote neither symphonies nor operas, although his Piano Concerto is considered among the best works composed by an Englishman. His output also includes some chamber music and a substantial body of piano works.
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Mark Bebbington (born 17 January 1972) is a British concert pianist. He studied at the Royal College of Music with Kendall Taylor and Phyllis Sellick and later in Italy with Aldo Ciccolini. As an advocate of British music, he has given premieres in concert and on CD of major works by Vaughan-Williams, Arthur Bliss, William Mathias, Ivor Gurney and John Ireland. Bebbington has recorded widely for SOMM and Resonus labels. Over recent seasons, he has toured extensively throughout Central and Northern Europe, the Far East and North America. As a recitalist, he makes regular appearances at major UK and international festivals.
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