Dutton Epoch’s first two volumes of music by Walter Braunfels were a revelation to many to whom the composer was just a name. This third volume concentrates on music written between 1910 and 1946. It is surprising that the glorious four-movement Serenade is not a regular repertoire work for it is a memorable discovery, reflecting as it does a pre-First World War innocence. Braunfels’s opera Die Vögel (The Birds) was his first great success after the war; the interlude Die Taubenhochzeit (The Doves’ Wedding) makes an appealing encore. The Prelude from another of Braunfels’s operas, Don Gil von den grünen Hosen (Don Gil of the Green Breeches), launches this programme in ringing Straussian terms, while the Dances and Tunes suite from the same opera is delightfully lyrical. In 1946, Braunfels wrote the Konzertstück in C sharp minor for piano and orchestra, in which pianist Piers Lane is a sparkling soloist.

1 Don Gil von den grünen Hosen: Vorspiel op.35/1 (1921-23) Tanz und Melodien: suite aus der Oper Don Gil von den grünen Hosen op.35/2 (1921-23)

2 i Zwischenspiel: Vorhang (Lebhaft)
3 ii Savoyarden Lied (Mässig)
4 iii Arietta (Zeiter aufgang)
5 iv Lied (Beroegt)
6 v Zwischenspiel (Sehr schnell)
7 vi Finale (Allegro molto)

Konzertstücke in C-sharp minor for piano and orchestra op.64 (1946) PL

8 Moderato
9 Doppelt so rasch
10 Langsam [cadenza]
11 Allegro molto

Die Taubenhochzeit aus der Oper Die Vögel op.30 no.2 (1913-19)

12 Sehrlebhaft (So schnell als möglich)

Serenade op. 20 (1910)

13 i Leicht bewegt
14 ii Lebhaft, ausgelassen
15 iii Ruhig
16 iv Die achtel fast so rasch wie bisher die viertel

BBC Concert Orchestra
Johannes Wildner conductor
PL Piers Lane piano
WORLD PREMIERE RECORDINGS [1-11]

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CDLX7327

“The performances are strong. Wildner has a fine understanding of Braunfels’s eclectic but always immediate style and there’s some superb playing, with the BBC CO wind on virtuoso form in the Vögel extract, and there is planty of shapely string and brassphrasing elsewhere.” “Piers Lane powers his way through it [solo part of Konzertstuck] with great dexterity and formidable interpretative weight.” Tim Ashley, Gramophone, June 2016