Gounod: Works for Pedal Piano and Orchestra

Charles Gounod:

Suite Concertante in A major (1888)

Concerto in E flat major (1889) 

Fantaisie sur l'hymne russe (1886)

Danse Roumaine (1885) 

Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana Howard Shelley, conductorRoberto Prosseda, pedal piano

Recorded in Lugano, Auditorium Stelio Molo, October 2012

Roberto Prosseda plays the Pinchi Pedalpiano System with two Steinway D grand pianos. 

'A real winner … one of the very jolliest of piano-and-orchestra recordings to come my way for some time … being Gounod, it is supremely well-crafted melodic music but the kind of material that can collapse like a soufflé without the right cast to show it in its best light … Hyperion's cast is top drawer … given exactly the right light touch and deft execution, abetted by Howard Shelley's stylish accompaniment, Gounod's box of bonbons is an unexpected delight'   

Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone

'Excellent performances'    BBC Music Magazine

'Very well played by Roberto Prosseda'    The Guardian 

'These four works are often charming and witty, sometimes massive and sometimes delicate. Prosseda plays all of the solo parts with Gallic elegance, while Howard Shelley encourages the strings of the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana to play with superb legato, and the woodwinds to combine with the upper register of the piano in delightful tintinnabulations. Hyperion's recorded sound expands and contracts in accord with the sonority of the music. This release is certainly 'off the beaten track' but it is definitely worth exploring'    International Record Review

'Gounod composed four works for piano and orchestra, and these are expertly captured on this Hyperion album … the sound world is fascinating; a multi-textured tapestry woven by an empowered soloist. The neoclassical Suite concertante in A major has fire in its belly, full of swooping melodies and earworm motifs. The Concerto juxtaposes light and dark, yet retains a playful character'   International Piano

‘Im Klavierkonzert [werden] triumphale Gestik und aristokratischer Habitus allerdings hinter eleganten Arabesken und melancholischen Passagen verschleiert … parallel zu den Orchesterstimmen, von Howard Shelley genau balanciert, kann Roberto Prosseda den nicht allzu virtuosen Duktus makellos in die „Chasse“, in die sehr liebliche Romanze und schließlich bis zur perkussiven Tarantella nahtlos integrieren’ (Piano, Germany)  PERFORMANCE RECORDING