Tippett Piano Intégrale

Piano Concerto
Fantasia on a theme of Handel
Piano Sonatas Nos 1 - 4

Osborne/BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra/Brabbins

Hyperion CDA67461/2 [67 + 74 mins; 2007] (listen to samples)

I requested this release because it was very long since I'd heard Tippett's rarely performed Fantasia (1939-41). That apart, his piano oeuvre is played regularly and oft-recorded; no doubt, comparative reviews will appear. However, Osborne/Brabbins bids fare to be highly competitive, and it is good to have all the piano music collected on one double-CD, recorded and documented (Ian Kemp) to Hyperion's high standards.

As they came out, many of these works were hard nuts to crack, but familiarity engendered affection. I remember the concerto sounding congested and overloaded with incident and proliferating decoration; in this account it sounds lucid and (deceptively) easy; gorgeous.

The journey from the wartime Handel Fantasia to the final sonata (premiered by Paul Crossley when Tippett was 80) is a long and rewarding one, and Kemp suggests that they offer a more compact survey of Tippett's composing career than would any other genre.

Unreservedly recommended.

Peter Grahame Woolf