Symposium's simply titled Three Piano Concerti contains three historical recordings of concertos performed by three very different pianists. Russian pianist
Simon Barere is readily accepted as a "legend," Jesús Mariá Sanroma was the in-house pianist with the
Boston Symphony and highly regarded if perhaps not at the first tier, and Reginald Paul is a relative unknown, his career centered mostly in England. Of these, the best recording and most engaging performance is that by Sanroma of the Padrewski Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 17. This neglected gem of the repertoire deserves to be programmed in concert more often -- it has a clearly developed structure and the benefit of attractive, familiar melodies derived from folk music. In modern recordings,
Piers Lane,
Earl Wild, and
Ewa Kupiec have effectively recorded the Padrewski concerto, but this
Boston Pops Orchestra recording with Sanroma has an advantage in the very fine, spirited, and well-shaped orchestral support piloted by
Arthur Fiedler. Reginald Paul was a professor of piano at the Royal Academy of Music and well known in England through his work on early British broadcasts and as a member of the chamber group the Fairhurst Trio. Paul's recording of the
Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor is interesting as a recording, being made in 1930, it is one of the earliest recordings made at Kingsway Hall, an important recording venue in the U.K.; the sound, though marred by a few pops and clicks, is quite good for the period. Paul is a capable interpreter of the
Saint-Saëns, but the overall effect of the performance is no more engaging than would be an inferior modern recording of the work. As to the Liszt with
Barere, recorded at Carnegie Hall in 1946,
Barere certainly has the technical mastery to carry off the first Liszt concerto, and some of his passagework, just by itself, is thrilling to listen to. Overall, though, it is an unremarkable performance and certainly does not generate the intensity and fire one hears in a 1932 recording of the same work given by
Walter Gieseking with
Henry Wood and the New Queen's Hall Orchestra.
Symposium's Three Piano Concerti is essentially three odd concerti, unrelated items except that they are concertos in old recordings. The
Barere and Sanroma items have already been reissued on CD, in packages devoted wholly to those artists. The unique item is that of Reginald Paul, and if one were curious enough about it, perhaps Three Piano Concerti would be of considerable value. Otherwise, it doesn't have much appeal, though the transfers are well made.