Album Reviews: Elan, Somervell and Cowen

Romantic Piano Concerto vol. 54 (Cowen and Somervell). Photo / Supplied

If you enjoyed Ensemble Liaison's recent Town Hall performance of Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time you can have a souvenir CD on Melba, the Messiaen coupled with Zemlinsky's marvellous Piano Trio.

Orchestra Victoria now presents ballet music from Saint-Saens operas, conducted by Guillaume Tourniaire with just the right Gallic flair.

Elan, the title of the disc, says it all. This is first-rate light music, from a gypsy mazurka from Henry VIII to the celebratory Farandole that marks the defeat of the German barbarians in Les Barbares.

The 16th-century setting of Ascanio occasions a suite of 12 dances with Saint-Saens stylishly doffing his cap to Rameau when not fashioning salon waltzes from familiar renaissance dances.

Hyperion continues to excavate for its Romantic Piano Concerto series and a pairing of Arthur Somervell (1863-1937) and Frederic Cowen (1852-1935) is Volume 54.

Martin Roscoe, who gave us some memorable Beethoven at the museum a few years back, is soloist with Martyn Brabbins and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Inevitably these works must compete with the "big ones" that have gone before and, alas, they fall rather short on the "big tunes" of Liszt, Schumann and Tchaikovsky.

Somervell is the worst offender, with the ostentatiously Scottish theme of his Highland Concerto so generic that it comes across as When Johnny Comes Marching Home disguised in a kilt.

Music that is doomed to just one listen in our crowded lives is presented with such musicianship and style that one might well feel guilty not going back for more.

Frederick Cowen is the more interesting man, so successful internationally that his astronomical Melbourne fees were the subject of tittle tattle in Otago newspapers.

His 1897 Concertstuck was a showpiece for the great Paderewski - not that it gets a mention in the Polish pianist's 1939 memoirs.

In fact, it is a pure and far from simple tribute to the great Liszt and, even if all that glisters may not be gold, the brilliant Roscoe just might fool you into thinking so.

Classical CDs

Stars: 5/5

Elan: Ballet Music by Saint-Saens (Melba)

Stars: 4/5

Somervell and Cowen: Piano Concertos (Hyperion, through Ode Records)

Verdict: "Musicians stylishly explore the forgotten byways of a previous age."Melbourne-based Melba Records continues to astonish with the sheer courage of its catalogue.