Joel Hill ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Deryk Barker wrote:
>
>>Unforrunately the Alkan Concerto is not one of JO's great recordings - as
>>even the liner note writer >seems to feel.
>
>What exactly did the notes say to give this impression? I have the original
>SLP, in the American pressing which was supposed to be inferior to the
>British one.  I seem to recall that Stereo Review praised JO's preformance
>and passed along the info about the different pressings.

How about "it is a mixture of the physically and climactically stupendous
(long stetches of the first movement) confronting the disappointingly
ordinary (the finale, replete with smudged second chord)...Seeking the
broader overview, the finer spirit of the work conceivably eluded him.
The recording was deleted within two years."

IMHO Hamelin's recording of the Concerto is the one to have.

Deryk Barker
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