Howard Shelley, Ulster Orchestra – Steibelt: Piano Concertos Nos. 3, 5 & 7 (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Howard Shelley, Ulster Orchestra – Steibelt: Piano Concertos Nos. 3, 5 & 7 (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:19:52 minutes | 1,17 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records

Howard Shelley and the Ulster Orchestra return for a second volume in Hyperion’s new Classical Piano Concerto series. Daniel Steibelt—the man who dared to challenge Beethoven and lost—ruled the keyboards of northern Europe for a quarter of a century, his own concertos as sensationally popular as their composer was ostentatious.

Having apparently completed a gigantic series of little-known Romantic piano concerto recordings for Hyperion, pianist Howard Shelley has turned to the Classical era. This, the second release in the Classical series, is a nice find. The pianist/composer Daniel Steibelt is a footnote in musical history, known for losing badly to Beethoven in a piano duel in 1800, but he was popular in Beethoven’s time, and the three concertos recorded here show why. They are in a Mozartian (not Beethovenian) style, and they lack the drama of the sonata form. Instead, they have brilliant piano work and, above all, delightful programmatic effects. Sample track six, the finale of the Piano Concerto No 5 in E flat major, Op 64 (À la chasse), a kind of fantasy on the 18th-century type of hunt divertimento music. Steibelt sets a variety of solo instruments against his piano to attractive effect. The finale of the Piano Concerto No 3 in E major, Op 33 (“L’orage”), with its storm effect, was popular in its time, and it seems likely throughout that Beethoven knew this music even though he dismissed Steibelt’s talents. Shelley, conducting from the keyboard, gets the simple fun to be found in the music, and the result is a fine choice for lovers of the Classical era piano concerto. –James Manheim, AllMusic

Tracklist:
01. Howard Shelley, Ulster Orchestra – Piano Concerto No. 3 in E major ‘L’orage’, Op. 33: I. Allegro brillante (16:49)
02. Howard Shelley, Ulster Orchestra – Piano Concerto No. 3 in E major ‘L’orage’, Op. 33: II. Scotch air: Adagio non troppo (04:20)
03. Howard Shelley, Ulster Orchestra – Piano Concerto No. 3 in E major ‘L’orage’, Op. 33: III. Rondo pastorale, in which is introduced an imitation of a storm (07:09)
04. Howard Shelley, Ulster Orchestra – Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major ‘À la chasse’, Op. 64: I. Allegro (14:10)
05. Howard Shelley, Ulster Orchestra – Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major ‘À la chasse’, Op. 64: I. Adagio (03:58)
06. Howard Shelley, Ulster Orchestra – Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major ‘À la chasse’, Op. 64: I. Rondo vivace ‘La chasse’ (08:34)
07. Howard Shelley, Ulster Orchestra – Piano Concerto No. 7 in E minor ‘Grand concerto militaire’: I. Allegro maestoso (18:45)
08. Howard Shelley, Ulster Orchestra – Piano Concerto No. 7 in E minor ‘Grand concerto militaire’: II. Rondo: Allegretto (06:02)

Personnel:
Ulster Orchestra
Howard Shelley, piano, conductor

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