PASC114: Piano Concerto in E minor, Op. 11

However, I had not counted on two scourges of early vinyl - persistent swishing of the vinyl surface, and peak distortion, particularly end-of-side distortion. Correcting or alleviating these problems required a huge amount of work - each revolution of the disc produced a slightly different swish which required individual treatment tailored to its particular characteristics. At times progress was slow - but I believe the results were more than worthwhile.

Despite its age (and the recording date of 1951 is partially speculative, based on lengthy research), the sound quality has held up remarkably well, helped by the XR remastering, and it is truly a joy now to appreciate the delightful subtleties of Mewton-Wood's exquisite performance.

Notes on the Orchestra: The members of the so-called Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra were drawn from the three Dutch radio orchestras of the day, something since confirmed by various orchestral members.

Notes on the 24-bit download: Please see this page for test files and further information regarding this format. Although restoration work is done at a sample rate of 44.1kHz, we have upsampled the final 24-bit master to 48kHz for additional replay compatibility of our FLAC download.

Our twenty-four bit FLAC downloads can be replayed in full quality using a standard DVD video player, a DVD writer and an inexpensive piece of PC software - see here for more information about replay from Video DVD discs.

Noel Mewton-Wood

biographical notes from Wikipedia, links to more information

Noel Mewton-Wood (November 20, 1922 – December 5, 1953) was an Australian-born concert pianist who achieved some fame during his short life.

Born in Melbourne, he studied at the Melbourne Conservatorium until the age of fourteen. After further studies at London's Royal Academy of Music, Mewton-Wood spent time with Artur Schnabel in Italy.

In March 1940 he returned to London for his debut performance at Queen's Hall, performing Beethoven's third piano concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham. He later performed in France, Germany, South Africa, Poland, Turkey, and Australia.

At the age of thirty-one, Mewton-Wood committed suicide by drinking prussic acid, apparently blaming himself for the death of a friend. The notes written by a friend of Mewton-Wood, John Amis, for the reissue of the Bliss Concerto recording, indicate that Mewton-Wood was gay and was depressed by the recent death of his lover.

Mewton-Wood's The Times obituary of December 7, 1953 described his playing style at his debut performance:

At once his remarkable control and his musicianship were apparent: the ascending scales in octaves, with which the pianist first enters, thundered out with whirlwind power, but he could summon beautiful cantabile tone for the slow movement and the phrasing of the rondo theme was admirably neat for all the rapidity of the tempo; a true understanding of the relationship in concerto between soloist and orchestra, and of the soloist's part in ensemble, betokened the musician, the potential chamber performer.

In addition to Beethoven, Mewton-Wood's repertoire included:

Tchaikovsky's three piano concertos, G major sonata, and Concert Fantasy;
Busoni's Fantasia contrappuntistica and Piano Concerto;
Sir Arthur Bliss's Piano Concerto (as Mewton-Wood was an exponent of this piece, Bliss wrote him a piano sonata);
Tippett's song cycle The Heart's Assurance;
Hindemith's Ludus tonalis;
and works by Britten, Schubert, Liszt, Mahler, Schumann, and Bartók.

He also composed chamber music, a piano concerto, ballet music, and music for the 1944 film Tawny Pippit.

Notes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Mewton-Wood

See also notes on Mewton-Wood at:

Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1

notes from Wikipedia

The Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 by the Polish composer Frédéric Chopin was composed in 1830. It was first performed on October 11, 1830, in Warsaw, with the composer as soloist during one of Chopin's "farewell" concerts before leaving Poland. It was the first of his two piano concertos to be published, and was therefore given the designation as Piano Concerto "No. 1" at the time of publication, even though it was actually written immediately after what was later published as Piano Concerto No. 2.

The concerto is scored for solo piano, a pair of flutes, oboes, clarinets, and bassoons, 4 horn, 2 trumpets, tenor trombone, timpani and strings

It contains the three movements typical of instrumental concertos of the period:

Allegro maestoso
Romance - Larghetto
Rondo - Vivace

Classical critics usually fall in to one of two schools of thought concerning the piece. The first of these says that given that Chopin was a composer for the piano first and foremost; the orchestral part of this piece acts more as a vehicle for the pianist, with the individual instrumental parts being uninteresting to perform. The second suggests that the orchestral backing is carefully and deliberately written to fit in with the sound of the piano, and that the simplicity of arrangement is in deliberate contrast to the complexity of the harmony.

Notes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No._1_(Chopin)