The Austrian-German symphonic canon goes something like this: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler. Yet, if we consider the piano concerto, we run out of names after Brahms. The later history of the piano concerto is with composers born outside of this tradition, and other Austrian-German composers writing in the same tradition are virtually nonexistent—at least that is what is implied by the repertoire performed in most concert halls.
This new disc from
Hyperion’s “The Romantic Piano Concerto” series (volume 76) gives us a chance to move away from the canon and explore. It pairs late-Romantic piano concertos by two lesser-known composers from the Austrian-German tradition: Joseph Rheinberger and Bernhard Scholz. These are performed by pianist
Simon Callaghan with the
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (SSO), led by conductor
Ben Gernon.
Joseph Rheinberger
Joseph Rheinberger was something of a prodigy, who went on to train in Munich and spent most of his life teaching there. While he wrote music in a wide variety of genres, he is best known for his organ sonatas, though lovers of choral music hold his masses in some regard.
