We use cookies to make our website work, to improve your experience, to analyse our traffic and to tailor our communications and marketing. You can choose which of these to accept, or accept all.
Help
Simon Mulligan is an outstanding piano soloist, combining precision with a beautiful pearly sound in the upper register. The cellist Weng-Sinn Yang isn't always as tight rhythmically, but makes... — BBC Music Magazine, February 2008, 4 out of 5 stars
More…
Gramophone Magazine
December 2007
Editor's Choice
In stock
Usually despatched within 1 working day
Contents
Simon Mulligan (piano) Royal Scottish National Orchestra José Serebrier Recorded: 30-31 August 2006 Recording Venue: Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow, Scotland Wen-Sinn Yang (cello) Royal Scottish National Orchestra José Serebrier Recorded: 30-31 August 2006 Recording Venue: Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow, Scotland Show 5 remaining tracks for Rorem: Cello Concerto Hide 5 tracks for Rorem: Cello Concerto
World Première Recordings
February 2008
Simon Mulligan is an outstanding piano soloist, combining precision with a beautiful pearly sound in the upper register. The cellist Weng-Sinn Yang isn't always as tight rhythmically, but makes the most of his many opportunities for lyricism. They're expertly supported by Serebrier, the RSNO, and Naxos's engineering.
2010
How remarkable that two such delectable concertos should be receiving their world premieres on disc. Unapologetically romantic and accessible, those qualities may well have mitigated against acceptance among the industry's fashion- mongers. The Second Piano Concerto (1951) was written for Julius Katchen and was given its first performance by that superb pianist in 1954. Since then it has lain dormant until its present revival by Simon Mulligan whose brilliance, ideally matched by José Serebrier, is worthy of Katchen himself. Here, the ghosts of Ravel, Françaix, Gershwin, Stravinsky and, most of all, Poulenc, jostle for attention. Yet Rorem's idiom is as personal as it is chic. The final pages of the central 'Quiet and Sad' movement, where the piano weaves intricate tracery round the orchestral theme, may owe much to the Adagioassai from Ravel's G major Concerto but it maintains its own character. The finale, 'Real Fast', is an irresistible tour de force played up to the hilt by Mulligan.
December 2007
The Second Piano Concerto (1951)… has lain dormant until its present revival by Simon Mulligan whose brilliance, ideally matched by José Serebrier, is worthy of Katchen himself. In the Cello Concerto Rorem happily eschews a conventional form… offering Wen-Sinn Yang a rich opportunity, whether playing primus inter pares or revelling in Rorem's alternating nostalgia and effervescence. Finely recorded, it's a clear winner for the Naxos American Classics series.
