Boisterous Energy Vaughan Williams' piano concerto - heard by GERALD FENECH 'Highly recommended ...'

This is a hugely interesting Vaughan Williams disc which includes a cracking new recording of the Piano Concerto. Ashley Wass is an exciting pianist, who brings substantial panache to proceedings, rather recalling an EMI Eminence recording with Takuo Yuasa conducting which was issued in the late 1990s.

I also greatly enjoyed The Wasps, which is brimful of boisterous energy, especially the Overture, which is very similar to Mark Elder's equally fine recording on the Halle label. The English Folk Song Suite is recorded here in the Gordon Jacob orchestration which sounds fine enough while there is the added bonus of the short The Running Set which rounds off the disc in rumbustious fashion.

The Naxos recording is quite top notch with judicious balance between orchestra and soloist, with the orchestral items also sounding quite effective and silky smooth. James Judd is a sympathetic conductor bringing out the colourful and rhapsodic in Vaughan Williams' music. Highly recommended, even if you have the works in question already.

RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

ASHLEY WASS

ROYAL LIVERPOOL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

THE WASPS

NAXOS

UNITED KINGDOM