CZERNY : Piano Concerto In F Major · Piano Concerto In A Major · Rondo Brilliant (Howard Shelley • Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra) (2017) Serie The Romantic Piano Concerto – 71 | FLAC (tracks), lossless

The sheer volume of works by the Czech-Austrian composer Carl Czerny has made appreciation difficult, and most pianists know him only through his School of Velocity piano exercises, still in common use. Howard Shelley here turns to Czerny in his magisterial series of Romantic piano concertos, which reaches its 71st volume with this release. The highlight is probably the Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 214 (sample the first movement), where Shelley nails the brilliant passagework at the top of the keyboard. This kind of thing is what kept pianists playing Czerny throughout the first half of the 19th century, even as more progressive composers came on the scene, and Shelley's performance is entirely idiomatic. The expansive Piano Concerto in F major, Op. 28, was designated in the 1830s as an arrangement of a guitar concerto by Mauro Giuliani, a fact mentioned in Hyperion's online notes for the album, but not in its printed booklet. It's not certain who the original author was, but the unusually variegated first movement sounds more like Giuliani than Czerny. There is a concluding Rondo brillant, Op. 233, with an adagio introduction, that has a slam-bang finale that's pure Czerny. Throughout these works (other than the Op. 28), there is a tendency toward square phrase structures that make you long for some kind of disruption, but Shelley makes you realize why Czerny was so successful. Part of his success is due to his conducting the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra from the keyboard; the musicians hang together nicely in some high-speed tempi. Recommended for those interested in the Beethoven orbit and the period immediately after. James Manheim
Tracklist :
Piano Concerto In F Major Op. 28    (27:04)
Composed By – Carl Czerny

Piano Concerto In A Minor Op. 214    (31:11)
Composed By – Carl Czerny

Rondo Brilliant In B Flat Major Op. 233    (14:54)
Composed By – Carl Czerny
Credits :
Conductor, Piano – Howard Shelley
Leader – Emma McGrath
Orchestra – Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra

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