Jacques Abram (piano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
(Leader, Paul Beard )
Conductor, Sir Malcolm Sargent
Sibelius and Britten
From the Royal Albert Hall, London
Tickets may be obtained from Royal Albert Hall or usual agents
Benjamin Britten's Piano Concerto belongs, in its original form. to 1938, when it was performed at a Promenade Concert in Queen's Hall with the composer as soloist. Seven years later Britten revised the work, substituting an Impromptu for the Recitative and Aria which had formed the third o.' the four movements; and this definitive version was given for the first time at the Cheltenham Festival in 1946. The work, says the composer, ' was conceived with the idea of exploiting various important characteristics of the piano, such as its enormous compass, its percussive quality, and its suitability for figuration; so that it is not by any means a symphony with piano, but rather a bravura concerto with orchestral accompaniment.' The titles of the movements are Toccata, Waltz, Impromptu (a set of variations), and A4arch.
The Concerto is a light-hearted work, somewhat freakish and brittle, perhaps, but extremely effective; the Impromptu, in particular, has a misty charm that is very appealing. Harold Rut/and