HENRYK MELCER (1869-1928): Piano Concertos No. 1 in E Minor and No. 2 in C Minor.

Description: The Romantic Piano Concerto - 44 Except for a lost symphony, these two concertos are the only music Melcer wrote involving an orchestra (and his solo piano and chamber music is very small in quantity too) and they both date from his youth (1892-4 and 1898) and both won prizes (the International Anton Rubinstein Competition of 1890 and the Paderewski Competition of 1898). They demand great technical ability and also stamina - the pianist is almost never silent throughout the 37 minutes of the Second - while the words of a Polish critic writing in 1912 about the Second Concerto apply to both, "...themes full of expression in Polish character that are developed so splendidly and broadly that they leave us enraptured..." Jonathan Plowright (piano), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; Christoph König.