Chisholm: Piano Concertos

Who was Erik Chisholm? A fascinating musical polymath: composer, conductor and performer, and collector of folk music from his native Scotland. Born in Glasgow in 1904, his attitude to music was progressive, looking towards central European modernism (he was dubbed ‘MacBartók’). Chisholm’s understanding and mastery of the piano—he performed the Scottish premieres of Rachmaninov’s Third and Bartók’s First Concertos—is evident in his two concertos. The first, ‘Pìobaireachd’, literally ‘pipe music’—that of the classical Highland bagpipes—uses these sinuous traditional themes to thrilling effect in a work that’s both exotic and lyrical; the ‘Hindustani’ concerto was inspired by Chisholm’s posting to the Far East during the Second World War and friendship with Sorabji, and is based upon a series of ragas.

Hyperion rising star Danny Driver is the scintillating soloist alongside the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Rory Macdonald in these captivatingly original works.

CDA67880  68 minutes 37 seconds
IRR 'OUTSTANDING' AWARD
EDITOR'S CHOICE, LIMELIGHT MAGAZINE (Australia)
‘It would be difficult to over-praise this wonderfully enterprising disc … the challenge for both soloist and orchestra is immense and it would be hard to imagine playing of a more coruscating br ...
‘Radical, visionary … Chisholm was himself a formidable pianist, and both Concertos teem with the kind of brilliant bravura keyboard writing that is meat and drink to Driver. The orchestration is ...
‘"McBartók", as Chisholm became known, based his first piano concerto on the classical music of the pipes, and highly attractive it is, too; full of provocative rhythm and utterly devoid of cliché. Hi ...