Netherlands Radio Philharmonic- Piano Concertos from the Netherlands

An unrivalled collection of lesser-known 20th-century piano concertos in both Romantic and modern styles, in definitive recordings by Dutch artists. This survey of Dutch piano concertos actually begins in 1886, with the A minor work by Carl Smulders (1863-1934). Smulders sidesteps convention by opening not with a grand gesture but a slow, expectant build-up, breaking the template for A minor piano concertos established first by Schumann and then Grieg. The piano writing itself has a lyrically Griegian flavour, however, which Ivo Janssen brings out in this 1994 recording. The collection steps confidently into the last century with a glittering 13-minute concerto of 1927 by Willem Pijper, and a punchy neoclassical concertino from 1928 by Henriette Bosmans, who brings sumptuous, Rachmaninoff-style lyricism to the contrasting episodes. The shadows of Bartok and Ravel continue to fall on Kees van Baaren's 1934 Concertino, and Leo Smit's 1937 concerto for piano and wind ensemble. Anothe