Britten, Barber: Piano Concertos; Nocturnes (2015)

The piano concertos of Benjamin Britten (begun in 1938, finished in 1945) and Samuel Barber (1960-1962) make a strong pairing, and the place of each in the repertory is probably stronger than 50 years ago when academicism held such sway. Korean American pianist Elizabeth Joy Roe, prior to this release better known as half of the thoroughly enjoyable Anderson and Roe piano duo, delivers ambitious and largely successful performances. The two works have some heft to them, with Britten's virtuoso work infused with the sharp, ... Read More

The piano concertos of Benjamin Britten (begun in 1938, finished in 1945) and Samuel Barber (1960-1962) make a strong pairing, and the place of each in the repertory is probably stronger than 50 years ago when academicism held such sway. Korean American pianist Elizabeth Joy Roe, prior to this release better known as half of the thoroughly enjoyable Anderson and Roe piano duo, delivers ambitious and largely successful performances. The two works have some heft to them, with Britten's virtuoso work infused with the sharp, nervous quality of its time of genesis just before World War II, and Barber's extraordinarily difficult writing complemented by a grand attempt to combine serialist structures with his basic late Romantic aesthetic (and the work remains one of the few to pull this off). The program is not well served by the album graphics, which one might liken to Vogue magazine ads if Vogue would not have done a much better job with them. But Roe's performance of the Barber, for which she replaced the... Read Less