Piston [Concerto] Concertos for Violin and Orchestra – No. 1; No. 2. Fantasia for Violin and Orchestra. James Buswell (vn); National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine / Theodore Kuchar.

Naxos (Super budget price) (CD) 8 559003 (61 minutes: DDD).

Piston wrote his First Violin Concerto in 1939. It has been recorded at least once before now, surprisingly in England. A (mono) broadcast performance of April 14th, 1956 by Louis Kaufman and the LSO under Bernard Herrmann was issued on Bay City Records, available briefly at the beginning of the 1990s. But no one took it up, and so an instantly memorable concerto, which ought by now to be in the standard repertory alongside the Barber, was sidelined until now, when this splendid Naxos CD arrived to demonstrate its quality. It has much in common with the Barber, including a similar abundance of individual melody. Indeed the simple but immediately memorable second subject of the first movement persists in the memory until, most engagingly, it is rhythmically transformed to become the secondary theme of the deliciously rhythmic and later riotous Rondo finale. This is the kind of audaciously scored movement that, played with much bravura from the soloist, would bring the house down at the Proms. However, the heart of the work is in the moving, pensive central Andantino molto tranquillo. There is just a hint of Gershwin in its bluesy opening, but the movement is essentially searching and ruminative. This is undoubtedly a masterpiece, as will be confirmed when other violinists take it up.

The Second Concerto was written two decades later. It is less obviously ‘popular’, its atmosphere more elusive, but its opening is similarly haunting and the more one hears it the more one is drawn by its depth of inner feeling. It forms a natural pair with the First Concerto, just like the two concertos of Prokofiev. The first movement develops two ideas, one sinuously expressive (later passionate), the other pungently rhythmic and angular. The extended, pensive Adagio introduces a serene and very beautiful theme, which is later to form a canonic duet with the flute. The finale is another sparkling, jaunty rondo.

The Fantasia is a late work, first performed in 1973. Again the opening is evocatively gripping, its language more dissonant: it is in five intricately related sections with almost feverish, bravura allegros framed by troubled, lonely adagio passages, dominated by the soloist, which have been described as ‘painfully aware and transcendentally serene’. The closing section is profoundly gentle. It may seem remarkable that these three works should make their digital CD debut played by a Russian orchestra, but it plays the music with splendid commitment, much subtlety of expression and fine ensemble too.

The sure idiomatic feeling is explained by the discovery that its conductor, Theodore Kuchar, moved to the Ukraine from Cleveland, Ohio, and is currently also Music Director of the newly formed Sinfonia of Colorado. James Buswell, who studied at the Juilliard (and made his solo debut with the NYPO at the age of seven) is a superbly accomplished, dedicated and spontaneous soloist with a full timbre, and the recording is first-class and very well balanced. There are excellent notes, including a good deal of comment from Piston himself, written when the music was first performed. This would be an essential purchase even at premium price, but on Naxos it is a gift! It will certainly feature in my ‘Critics’ Choice’, and, I hope, in next year’s Gramophone Awards too.

IM