Canter Bridge

The dance of an instrumental soloist and the disproportionately sized partner with which the classical concerti pair him or her is one of classical music’s most capable forms. Done well, the assymetry soars. The soloist’s work is framed as no other configuration could. The orchestra’s restraint against the danger of overpowering its smaller partner show a deftness that is compensated by the occasional liberties afforded it to revel in its own potency while its partner pauses to gather strength.

I am not a fan of the ‘highlight reel’ approach to long-form classical music, since I believe we owe the composers and performers of such work the sustained attention span that alone credits their sophisticated labors. Still, in the face of this marvelous offering of 1990s-era Sunday Times Music Collection, it would be pedantry to complain. London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra plays just over an hour of six of the classical Romantic concerto’s most stunning exemplars. The piano, cello, horn, and violin shine as they work the most memorable movements of concerti by Chopin, Elgar, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, and Beethoven.

You won’t get the architecture of a complete work. You won’t glimpse how, say, the second movement of Chopin’s Piano Concerto no 2 (Larghetto) occupies a stirring moment in a longer conversation than the 9 minutes and 19 seconds it occupies in this performance.

You will merely hear sixty-seven minutes of some of the finest music ever written. Context can wait.