The Romantic Piano Concerto - 84

ALOYS SCHMITT (1788-1866): Piano Concertos No. 1 in C Minor, Op. 14 and No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 34, Rondeau brillant, Op. 101 (World Premiere Recordings).

Description: Author of many pedagogical piano pieces (some of which are still in print today), pianist, friend of Spohr, Mendelssohn and his sister Fanny, Schmitt moved a lot and held posts and performed all over the German states of his time. Judging from the dates of publication of other opus numbers, these two concertos would have dated from c.1818 and c.1822. They might have better fit under Hyperion’s“Classical Piano Concerto” rubric given the echoes of Mozart and Beethoven in No.1 while in a review of the Rondo brilliant (1839) by no less a critic than Robert Schumann, he is placed in the company of John Field and Hummel. Ulster Orchestra; Howard Shelley (piano).