Canter Bridge

From the mid-90s Sunday Times Music Collection comes this splendid introduction to the period when European art music was beginning to let its hair down as the well-coiffed standards of the Classical era were undermined by the kinds of experimentation that is audible in these ten selections from six composers (Mendelssohn, Chopin, Berlioz, Field, Schubert, Schumann).

John Field’s ‘Piano Concerto N. 2 in A Flat’ (second movement, ‘Poco Adagio’) stands out, beautifully performed by John O’Conor and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under the baton of Sir Charles Mackerras, as does the pianist’s rendition of the same composer’s ‘Nocturne in F’. The haunting second movement of Schumann’s ‘Symphony No 4 in D Minor’ (performed by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra) also deserves special mention, displaying as it does the musical tenderness of which early Romantic writers were capable and the employment of a solo violinist over against the orchestral backdrop while remaining within the established—though evolving—symphonic genre.

Indeed, the appearance of assertive solo instruments is one of the period’s qualities that is most prominently exemplified on this disk, together with its martial edge (for example, Berlioz’ ‘Rákócszy March’ and ‘March to the Scaffold’ from they ‘Symphonie fantastique’). The piano makes its potential heard with accompaniment (Field, Schubert’s ‘Trout’) and without (Chopin’s ‘Etude in C minor, ‘Revolutionary’ and ‘Piano Sonata in B Minor’.)

A superb little sampler and a credit to this remarkable Sunday Times series.