The resurgence of the music of British composer York Bowen began in the mid-'90s with a single Hyperion disc featuring a selection of Bowen's short piano pieces plated by Stephen Hough. Several dozen genre solo piano pieces and chamber works later, here we have arrived at concerti; namely, York Bowen: Violin Concerto -- Piano Concerto No. 1. This is in Dutton's Epoch series, dedicated to bringing unrecorded twentieth century British music to the table. By now Bowen has been back for seconds so many times one wonders whether ...
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The resurgence of the music of British composer York Bowen began in the mid-'90s with a single Hyperion disc featuring a selection of Bowen's short piano pieces plated by Stephen Hough. Several dozen genre solo piano pieces and chamber works later, here we have arrived at concerti; namely, York Bowen: Violin Concerto -- Piano Concerto No. 1. This is in Dutton's Epoch series, dedicated to bringing unrecorded twentieth century British music to the table. By now Bowen has been back for seconds so many times one wonders whether his audience will lose its appetite for this particular bill of fare, but York Bowen: Violin Concerto -- Piano Concerto No. 1 does demonstrate what Bowen could do in extended forms. The Piano Concerto No. 1, dating from 1903 and played here excellently by pianist Michael Dussek, is the true centerpiece. The piece has the bloom of youth -- Bowen was only 19 when he wrote it -- and it is unapologetically post-Romantic in style and brimming with show-offish virtuoso passages....
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