ELMAS : Piano Concerto No. 1 In G Minor • Piano Concerto No. 2 In D Minor (Howard Shelley • Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra) (2021) Serie The Romantic Piano Concerto – 82 | FLAC (tracks), lossless

The Hyperion label's "Romantic Piano Concerto" series reaches its 82nd item with this release, featuring, as in most of the series, pianist Howard Shelley leading the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra from the keyboard. It's worth pausing to acknowledge the high quality of the series; Shelley, in particular, has adapted to a wide variety of musical idioms and generally represented them effectively. This release offers the first two concertos of composer Stéphan Elmas (1862-1937). Elmas had an eventful life that included going deaf after a bout with typhoid, marrying an armless artist who painted with her feet, and spiriting his family out of Turkey during the Armenian genocide. He was trained in Vienna and spent most of his adult life in Geneva; from the works heard here, there is little that's Armenian about his music. (There is a third piano concerto, which perhaps will surface later in Hyperion's series.) Elmas was a formidable virtuoso, more in the Anton Rubinstein mold than in that of Liszt, although Elmas' career was aided by Liszt in Europe. The strongest feature of these concertos is their elegant integration of the virtuoso element into classical forms. At the local level, though, the influence is Chopin, artfully imitated but without the thrill of discovery. Shelley's slimmed-down Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra is highly idiomatic, and the recording at the Federation Concert Hall in Hobart, Tasmania, is clear and transparent. James Manheim  
Tracklist :
Piano Concerto No. 1 In G Minor (1882)    (38:53)
Piano Concerto No. 2 In D Minor (1887)    (34:59)
Credits :
Concertmaster – Emma McGrath
Orchestra – Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Piano, Conductor – Howard Shelley