The Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra : Osborne, Volkov / BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
The complete works for piano and orchestra

Piano Concerto in D major, Op 13
Piano Concerto in D major, Op 13, original 1938 version: Movement 3
Young Apollo, Op 16
Diversions, Op 21

Steven Osborne, piano
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Ilan Volkov, conductor

Recording details: September 2007
Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Produced by Andrew Keener
Engineered by Simon Eadon

The three compositions which comprise Britten’s music for solo piano and orchestra constitute a unique, yet still little explored, part of his output. Here they are brought together in a stunning disc that pays tribute to the great artistry of all involved.

Steven Osborne’s performance of Britten’s Piano Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Ilan Volkov at the 2007 BBC Proms redefined this often undervalued work in the ears of his listeners, imbuing it with hitherto unsuspected emotional and musical weight; playing the bravura passages with glittering assurance and joie de vivre. The same musicians have put down a benchmark recording here and, as a bonus, also recorded the original third movement which Britten discarded in his 1945 revision.

Diversions for left-hand piano and orchestra is a gem of a piece, which has rarely been recorded. It is highly virtuosic and incredibly well laid out for the left hand, at times almost in the form of etudes for piano and orchestra. Britten reaches unexpected levels of emotional intensity, most notably in the Chant and the powerful Allegro.

Seventy years or so after these works were first performed, their freshness and vitality speaks with the same musical truth that Imogen Holst divined in Britten’s work, when, writing to him after attending an early performance of Peter Grimes, she said: ‘You have given it to us at the very moment when it was most needed.’ In revisiting these unjustly neglected early works, and, through performances of matchless brilliance, discovering qualities that were missed or overlooked when they first appeared, we have good cause to echo her sentiments. ( Hyperion )