Output details

Franz Reizenstein, Piano Concerto No. 2 in F; Stanley Bate, Piano Concerto No. 2 in C major, Op. 28. CD recording: Victor Sangiorgio (piano), Royal Scottish National Orchestra, cond. Martin Yates.

This third performance output from Sangiorgio again presents world premiere recordings, in collaboration with the conductor Martin Yates and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Dutton Epoch, of two very substantial piano concertos from the mid-twentieth century by British and adoptive British composers Stanley Bate (1940) and Franz Reizenstein (1961). Although both works were well recognized in their day, being promoted by, for example, Sir Thomas Beecham and Bruno Walter, they suffered some neglect in the intervening years; Sangiorgio’s new championing can be seen as a significant contribution to the general re-investigation and re-invigoration of interest in mid-twentieth-century British music now being enjoyed by both performers and musicologists. For these recordings Sangiorgio collaborated with Lewis Foreman and Martin Yates in sourcing the performance materials. From a performance research perspective, a major factor in the preparation and execution of the recordings lay in the positioning of style, interpretation and technique in relation to the complex of influences surrounding these little-known works, including British music of an earlier generation (for instance, Vaughan Williams – perhaps surprisingly – taught both composers), and Hindemith (another teacher of Reizenstein). From a more personal research perspective, Sangiorgio was also interested in exploring, and interpretatively locating both himself and this repertory in, a relationship with the complete solo piano music of Stravinsky, which he has also recorded.