Piano Concerto

SOMM Recordings is pleased to announce the return of the acclaimed partnership of pianist Clélia Iruzun and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jac van Steen with two colorful late-19th-century Romantic Piano Concertos from Brazil and France: Henrique Oswald's G minor Piano Concerto, Op.10 and the Fifth Piano Concerto in F major (Op.103) by Camille Saint-Saëns. Iruzun's Brazilian compatriot Henrique Oswald shared a long friendship with Camille Saint-Saëns based on mutual admiration for each other as composers and pianists. They occasionally performed together some of Saint-Saëns' music for two pianos in public recitals. Saint-Saëns' exotic Fifth Piano Concerto, the Egyptian, was composed during a North African holiday in 1896. Combining complex piano writing with a deft lightness of touch, it boasts a lyrical main theme (described by Saint-Saëns as "a Nubian love song"), hypnotic echoes of the gamelan and a finale bursting with virtuosity. Oswald's Piano Concerto was composed in Italy a decade before Saint-Saëns' Egyptian. With bravura passages recalling Saint-Saëns' Second Piano Concerto, it's richly Romantic vein carries allusions to Fauré while brimming with Oswald's intriguing native Brazilian rhythms. Like Oswald, Alberto Nepomuceno was a Brazilian who studied in Europe, later succeeding him in a prestigious teaching position in Rio de Janeiro. Modelled on Grieg's Suite from Holberg's Time, his Suite Antiga (Suite in the Old Style) combines Baroque style and Romantic attitude with a bewitching savoir faire.