this completely symbiotic live account with Edward Gardner’s LPO has both repose and electricity to surpass all others...More, much more please – an indispensable disc!

Listening to these luminous and often electrifying performances, it’s hard to believe that this was music which accrued a reputation for ‘difficulty’: the technical challenges are worn ever so lightly, and Gardner has a wonderful way of spotlighting inner details as well as tapping into the infectious energy which thrums through both works.

The recorded balance between the piano and the orchestra is not always ideal...But otherwise the concerto teems with detail, and in the finale...the energy of the music is irrepressible, just as the pounding rhythms and intricately meshing string-writing of the Second Symphony (arguably the most coherent of Tippett’s works in the form) are superbly delivered by Gardner and his orchestra.