Gardner: Piano Concerto No. 1 / Symphony No. 1 / Midsummer Ale Overture Peter Donohoe

• 1Midsummer Ale Overture, Op. 7305:28
• 2I. Allegro con brio09:04
• 3II. Theme and variations09:52
• 4III. Finale: Rondo06:43
• 5I. Lento e grave11:57
• 6II. Scherzo: Allegro06:22
• 7III. Lento11:56
• 8IV. Finale: Allegro molto10:32
• Total Runtime01:11:54

Info for Gardner: Piano Concerto No. 1 / Symphony No. 1 / Midsummer Ale Overture

The English composer John Gardner has been largely neglected, in spite of his prolific output. His career began with great promise before the war, to be resumed gradually afterwards, but seldom with the success he seemed to deserve. This recording should help to re-establish his reputation with two relatively early works written in the post-war years, the Symphony No. 1, “a superbly crafted work... by a subtle and imaginative orchestrator” (Paul Conway/Musicweb-International) and the Piano Concerto No. 1, both premièred by Barbirolli. The Piano Concerto here receives only its third performance. Midsummer Ale is a classic piece of British light music with delightfully catchy melodies.

“These fine, dedicated performances are undoubtedly a fitting gift to the composer on his 90th birthday.” (BBC Music Magazine)

“A victim of late ’50s Darmstadtism, Gardner’s music is making a welcome comeback...The First Piano Concerto (1967) offers a contrasted idiom in its percussive echoes of the Bartók concertos, suiting Peter Donohoe's strong style admirably in a performance brilliantly backed by David Lloyd-Jones and the RSNO. The disc is dazzlingly rounded off with a rumbustious comedy overture. Midsummer Ale, which I hope will bring renewed attention to the composer's most attractive music.” (Gramophone)

“This coupling of two of John Gardner's major works, plus a sparkling comedy overture, could not be more welcome...By rights this disc will bring renewed attention to the music of a most attractive composer.” (The Penguin Guide)

Peter Donohoe, piano
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
David Lloyd-Jones, conductor

Peter Donohoe
In the years since his unprecedented success as Silver Medal winner of the 1982 7th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, Peter Donohoe has built an extraordinary world-wide career, encompassing a huge repertoire and over forty years’ experience as a pianist, as well as continually exploring many other avenues in music-making. He is acclaimed as one of the foremost pianists of our time, for his musicianship, stylistic versatility and commanding technique.

During recent seasons Peter Donohoe’s performances included appearances with the Dresden Staatskapelle with Myung-Whun Chung, Gothenburg Symphony with Gustavo Dudamel and Gurzenich Orchestra with Ludovic Morlot. He also performed with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and played both Brahms Concertos with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Last season his engagements included appearances with the City of Birmingham Symphony and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestras and an extensive tour o South America. He also took part in a major Messiaen Festival in the Spanish city of Cuenca, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth.

Peter Donohoe played with the Berliner Philharmoniker in Sir Simon Rattle’s opening concerts as Music Director. He has also recently performed with all the major London Orchestras, Royal Concertgebouw, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Munich Philharmonic, Swedish Radio, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Vienna Symphony and Czech Philharmonic Orchestras. He was an annual visitor to the BBC Proms for seventeen years and has appeared at many other festivals including six consecutive visits as resident artist to the Edinburgh Festival, eleven highly acclaimed appearances at the Bath International Festival, La Roque d’Anthéron in France, and at the Ruhr and Schleswig Holstein Festivals in Germany. In the United States, his appearances have included the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. Since 1984 he has visited all the major Australian Orchestras many times, and since 1989 he has made several major tours of New Zealand with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He has recently returned from a highly acclaimed tour of Argentina with the National Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela.

He has worked with many of the worlds’ greatest conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Neeme Jarvi, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur, Andrew Davis and Yevgeny Svetlanov. More recently he has appeared as soloist with the next generation of excellent conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Robin Ticciati and Daniel Harding.

He is a keen chamber musician and performs frequently with the pianist Martin Roscoe. They have given performances in London and at the Edinburgh Festival and have recorded discs of Gershwin and Rachmaninov. Other musical partners have included the Maggini Quartet, with whom he has made recordings of several great British chamber works.

In 2001 Naxos released a disc of music by Gerald Finzi, with Peter Donohoe as soloist, the first of a major series of recordings which aims to raise the public's awareness of British piano concerto repertoire through concert performance and recordings. Discs of music by Alan Rawsthorne, Sir Arthur Bliss, Christian Darnton, Alec Rowley, Howard Ferguson, Roberta Gerhard, Kenneth Alwyn, Thomas Pitfield, John Gardner and Hamilton Harty have since been released to great critical acclaim.

Peter Donohoe has made many fine recordings on EMI Records, which have won awards including the Grand Prix International du Disque Liszt for his recording of the Liszt Sonata in B minor and the Gramophone Concerto award for the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto no. 2. His recordings of Messiaen with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble for Chandos Records and Litolff for Hyperion have also received widespread acclaim. His recording of Brahms’ 1st Concerto with Svetlanov and the Philharmonia Orchestra was voted best available recording by the US magazine Stereo Review.

He studied at Chetham’s School of Music for seven years, graduated in music at Leeds University, where he studied composition with Alexander Goehr, and the Royal Northern College of Music, studying piano with Derek Wyndham. He then went on to study in Paris with Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod. His prize-winning performances at the British Liszt Competition in London in 1976, the Bartok-Liszt Piano Competition in Budapest in the same year, and the Leeds International Piano Competition in 1981 helped build a major career in the UK and Europe. Then his activity in the competitive world culminated in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1982, which shot his name into world-wide prominence. In June 2011 he returned to Moscow as a jury member for the 14th International Tchaikovsky Competition.

He is vice-president of the Birmingham Conservatoire and has been awarded Honorary Doctorates of Music from the Universities of Birmingham, Central England, Warwick, East Anglia, Leicester and The Open University.

Peter Donohoe was awarded a C.B.E. for services to music in the 2010 New Year’s Honours List.

Booklet for Gardner: Piano Concerto No. 1 / Symphony No. 1 / Midsummer Ale Overture