Monday, November 2, 2015

SCOTT Piano Concerto, Symphony No. 4

Cyril Scott was an artist of immense standing amongst his contemporaries. Debussy wrote of him, ‘Cyril Scott is one of the rarest artists of the present generation…’ and Elgar acknowledged Scott’s influence in his treatment of harmony.

“The Scott revival gathers pace remarkably: two volumes of piano works from Leslie De'Ath… a volume of orchestral works… and now a second one from the same team of superb advocates. The First Piano Concerto… is a wonderfully inventive work, completely imagined in every detail. Howard Shelley is, as usual, an impeccable soloist… this release represents a remarkable discovery in 20th-century British music: excellent recording, too.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2006



Howard Shelley and the BBC Philharmonic span the idiom with panache and sensibility, identifying a composer whose credentials as an individualist in English music are greatly enhanced be this recording. --Telegraph

Scott’s scoring is extravagant but lucid, his harmony sensuous and involving, and his structures are free but controlled… This is a CD of terrific music, its demands comprehensively met by the musicians, and the recording. --International Record Review

This second release in Chandos’ Cyril Scott series is entirely up to the technical standards of the first… beautifully recorded and equally eloquent performances by Howard Shelley… Brabbins directs sympathetic and characterful performances, skilfully delineating the strands in Scott’s orchestral web. Well worth any British music-lover’s time. --BBC Music Magazine

The performances are immaculate and the recording admirably clear and tangible, reflecting the music itself: an aural feast.
--International Record Review

Shelley makes rich adventures of Scott’s 1913 rhapsodic Piano Concert. High tension in a burning string unison precedes his majestic first entry. An animato section tempts from him a spirited skip towards a reflective strolling andante. The haunting chord that opens both the first and last movements of the Fourth Symphony lingers long enough to insinuate itself. One senses Brabbins revelling in the gamut – the mesmerising slow movement, the clownish scherzo. Shelley reappears in Early One Morning, a poetic concertino that picks over the folk song with almost psychoanalytical pedantry. --The Times

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