Vaughan Williams: Fantasy for Piano & Orchestra

Listen on Presto Music. Free thirty day trial. Find out more.

The First Concerto was written when Mathias was only 20 and reveals a fascinatingly wiry, acerbic mindset which the composer largely jettisoned in his later style. With a greater sense of direction,... — Gramophone Magazine, December 2011 More…

Release Date: 17th Oct 2011
Catalogue No: SOMMCD246
Label: Somm
Length: 70 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Mathias: Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 2

Work length25:00

$5.00

$6.50

Mark Bebbington
Ulster Orchestra
George Vass

I. Allegro

Track length8:29

$2.00

$2.60

II. Lento

Track length9:42

$2.00

$2.60

III. Allegro molto vivace

Track length6:49

$1.00

$1.30

Mathias: Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 13

Work length24:17

$6.00

$7.80

Mark Bebbington
Ulster Orchestra
George Vass

I. Molto moderato, sempre flessibile

Track length7:51

$2.00

$2.60

II. Allegro molto vivace

Track length3:30

$1.00

$1.30

III. Lento molto e flessibile

Track length5:46

$1.00

$1.30

IV. Allegro alla danza

Track length7:10

$2.00

$2.60

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia

Work length21:23

Album only

Mark Bebbington
Ulster Orchestra
George Vass

About
Reviews
Explore

About

This release is another spectacular coup for SOMM, as it includes two world premiere recordings; RVW’s Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra and Mathias’s Piano Concerto No.1. They are coupled with Mathias’s Piano Concerto No. 2 which has rarely been recorded.

Vaughan Williams began this Fantasia in 1896 and revised it in 1904. The manuscript was deposited in the British Library and was removed from circulation by the composer’s widow.

Reviews

December 2011

The First Concerto was written when Mathias was only 20 and reveals a fascinatingly wiry, acerbic mindset which the composer largely jettisoned in his later style. With a greater sense of direction, the four-movement Second Concerto is at once more characteristic of Mathias's individual chemistry of lyricism, mysticism, neo-romanticism and neo-classicism.

2nd October 2011

[the Vaughan Williams] offers fascinating glimpses of his influences and clearly points the way towards the greatness that was to come. It joins another student work, William Mathias's wonderfully angular first piano concerto, in a striking performance which, coupled with the second from 1961, brings an unjustly neglected composer back into the limelight.

19th November 2011

[Mathias I] a really engaging piece – spiky and rhythmically interesting...[No. 2] is more melodic and the harmonic language more lucid...Mark Bebbington’s muscular playing does the [Vaughan Williams] proud, and he’s well accompanied by George Vass and the Ulster Orchestra. But it’s the Mathias concertos which I’ll return to more often.

Vaughan Williams: Fantasy for Piano & Orchestra

CD

Downloads

Contents

Download queue