Hyperion’s record of the month of April is the forty-second release in our prestigious Romantic Piano Concerto series.

We went to Norway for this one—and rightly so as the recording reveals that there’s more to Norwegian Romantic Piano Concertos than Grieg in A minor. While Sinding is at least a name to most people (if only for The Rustle of Spring) Alnæs is almost completely unknown outside his native land, yet it is perhaps this latter’s concerto which makes the bigger impression. This is a glorious late romantic work in an idiom akin to Rachmaninov; indeed there are passages which seem to quote the Russian’s fourth concerto—except that the Alnæs was written first. Did Rachmaninov perhaps hear an early performance?

The Sinding is a monolithic three-movement work where all the material is based on one theme which undergoes many Lisztian transformations. The piece is hugely virtuosic, some may say bombastic—but some may also say that’s what this series is about—and it’s all good fun!

We’re delighted to continue our relationship with Andrew Litton as the new principal conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic and here he is joined by RPC stalwart Piers Lane in his sixth contribution to the series.