Tasmanian SO/Howard Shelley (piano) Hyperion CDA 67765 ***

Hyperion’s Romantic Piano Concerto series touched base with greatness – Tchaikovsky – at Vol 50. Here, at Vol 51, it paddles in shallower German waters. Wilhelm Taubert (1811- 1891) wrote his First Concerto in the shadow of Mendelssohn in 1833, but his Second didn’t appear until the 1870s, after Brahms, Liszt and others had catapulted the piano concerto into new areas of virtuosic and harmonic endeavour. The older Taubert remains true to the spirit of his youth while showing awareness of the musical developments of four decades. The tone of both works is light, the music most successful when in a mode of flightiness. The D minor Piano Concerto by Jacob Rosenhain (1813-1894), written in the 1840s, suggests a composer whose facility outstripped his ambition. In Howard Shelley’s spry performances, it’s Taubert who makes the better impression. See url.ie/4qdb