Album review: Dussek and Beethoven

CD cover: Beethoven Piano Concertos 3 &a 4.

It is difficult to be too disdainful of the earlier work, a real glitterfest that does not allow a slow movement to dampen its merry fun. One wonders whether Hyperion's The Romantic Piano Concerto series may peter out with its forthcoming 64th volume, featuring obscurities from the pens of Brazilian composer Henrique Oswald and the Portuguese Alfredo Napoleao.

I suspect not but, in the meantime, the English label has a new brand in The Classical Piano Concerto, paying tribute to minor Titans of the 18th century. Volume 1 features the Czech Jan Ladislav Dussek (1760-1812), a composer often relegated to a shady no man's land between Mozart and Beethoven.

Howard Shelley, with the Ulster Orchestra, tackles three concertos, ranging from a 1783 work to one from 1810 that finds the ambitious composer vying with the likes of Hummel, Weber and Ferdinand Ries. It is difficult to be too disdainful of the earlier work, a real glitterfest that does not allow a slow movement to dampen its merry fun. Shelley and his orchestra dispense it with charm school elan.

The 1810 Concerto is more problematic, especially when Dussek has the audacity to stretch the parchment-thin material of its first movement to 15 minutes.

Yet, even here, the almost naive innocence of its Adagio almost compensates.

In a crowded market for Beethoven Piano Concertos, a new Onyx release from Maria Joao Pires deserves attention.

The 70-year-old Portuguese pianist made the news last year when she was surprised, but not too flustered, by an unexpected change of Mozart Concerto with Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra.

There are no such issues in these relaxed and collegial sessions with conductor Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

In a brief cover essay, Pires comments on the challenge of bridging the gap between the exceptional personality of a composer and ordinary mortals.

No such problems mar these sparkling accounts of two of Beethoven's most approachable concertos.

With the Third Concerto one is impressed with its spontaneity, the poetry of its Largo and the way in which the Finale dances its way to a joyous conclusion.

In the Fourth, you will be spellbound by the elegance of the soloist's opening phrase, and startled by unusual voicings that lend the Finale the intimacy of first-class chamber music.

Dussek

Piano Concertos (Hyperion)

Beethoven

Piano Concertos 3 & 4 (Onyx)

Verdict: Two recent recordings reveal unexpected treasures in the piano concerto repertoire.