Concerto
Cramer
Piano Concertos Nos 1, 3 & 6 London Mozart Players/
Howard Shelley (piano)
Hyperion CDA68302 78:00 mins
Johann Baptist Cramer was highly rated by composer-pianist contemporaries – Beethoven among them – and this second instalment in Howard Shelley’s ongoing concertos cycle offers convincing evidence as to why. All three works have individuality and substance; and it’s hard to imagine they can ever have been much better played. There are just a few moments – for instance the chords of the piano’s first entry in Concerto No. 1, which sound over-full (rather than actually overloud) on Shelley’s modern concert grand – where you miss the feel and articulation of a classical-period piano. In every
