OVERVIEWS - HYPERION - THE ROMANTIC PIANO CONCERTO SERIES

Hats off to Hyperion Records for having the insight, courage, conviction and perseverance for undertaking such a challenging recording project. When it seems that most labels are scrambling for new material and are constantly putting out budget re-issue after budget re-issue of the same overly familiar material, Hyperion comes along and offers us world premiere first class recordings of exciting, fresh music.

As of April 2010, this prestigious series has now reached Volume 50, showcasing Piano Concertos 1, 2 and 3 by Tchaikovsky, performed by Stephen Hough.

If you enjoy piano music, or more specifically piano concertos then this series of recordings is for you.

The composers range from the well known: Delius, Mendelssohn, Massenet, Rimsky-Korsakov .. to the lesser known: Sauer, Brull, Herz, and lots in between.

Pianists like Demidenko, Hamelin, Hough, Shelley and conductors Brabbins, Mackerras, Ossonce and Vanska.

You can see that this massive project was a serious and well-planned undertaking and the results are no less impressive. All of these great piano concertos deserve a place in your cd collection. These important works in the piano concerto repertoire were simply overlooked by record labels only interested in the bottom line or afraid of taking a risk.

Hyperion took that risk and all of our lives are richer for it!