On track: Renewed passion for overlooked concertos

The reclamation of the British Piano Concerto continues at a feverish pace, with two labels vying to restore overlooked works to the catalogue.

On Hyperion, Piers Lane's recording of the Delius and Ireland Concertos is the 39th volume of the label's Romantic Piano Concerto series, a collection many associate with such names as Herz, Scharwenka and Moscheles.

The Delius Concerto fits the Romantic bill. Inspired by his friend Grieg's A minor Concerto, the composer had hoped for the great Busoni to give the premiere performance in 1904. By 1907 Delius had sanctioned a shortened version, with its piano part re-written by one of Busoni's pupils.

Lane returns to the original, restoring its rhapsodic finale, which has more musical adventures and delightful loose ends than the more derivative first two movements. Playing alongside the Ulster Orchestra under David Lloyd-Jones, Lane seems in love with every note. The recording palette is rich and resonant, allowing an extraordinary immediacy to solo instrumental lines.

John Ireland was quite a character. Living from 1879 to 1962, he was proud of hearing Brahms premieres in his youth and later revealed his fascination for the sound world of Pierre Boulez.

Ireland's First Piano Concerto, from 1930, is a brilliant riposte to Prokofiev and his ilk. There is a strain of English pastoral here, but also some piano writing that nods to Gershwin and Constant Lambert.

Lane seems to have a sound for every mood, from sparkling passagework to lush sweepings of passion, and the Ulster musicians are with him all the way.

The latest in Naxos' British Piano Concertos series is a collection of music by Sir Hamilton Harty, best known for his naughty over-arrangements of Handel.

Harty, an established conductor, knew his orchestra and it shows in his Fantasy Scenes although not all will take to idioms that sound like Tchaikovsky strained through Eric Coates.

The Piano Concerto is edge-of-the-piano-stool stuff and Peter Donohoe spares naught, from the opening tremolo dazzle to the Celtic romp of the Finale, with conductor Takuo Yuasa encouraging the Ulster Orchestra brass to whoop it up like malevolent leprechauns. But don't wait till next St Patrick's Day to get this one.

* Delius and Ireland, Piano Concertos, with Piers Lane (Hyperion 67296, through Ode Records)
Sir Hamilton Harty, Piano Concerto, with Peter Donohoe (Naxos 8.557731)