Valerie Tryon – Works For Orchestra & Piano [Jac van Steen, Valerie Tryon] [Somm: SOMM 253] [Audio CD]

Review Her articulation remains clear and precise her approach lyrical and expressive . I very much hope this will not be the last of Valerie Tryon’s recordings. –Gramophone, Oct’14 This is certainly a most enjoyable and well characterised account of music that deserves greater currency. Throughout, the sound quality is excellent in its balance and also faithful to the unencumbered clarity of Henry Wood Hall. –IRR, Dec’14 This entertaining, well-filled disc collects three works which, if they were programmed more frequently, should fill concert halls. The pick of them is Dohnnyi’s inventive, unpretentious Variations on a Nursery Song a piece which throws up fresh surprises with each listen. The best joke comes near the beginning, as a brooding, doom-filled opening slyly introduces the theme, Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman. Fourteen variations follow, along with multiple references to composers who would have been familiar to audiences at the work’s 1914 premiere. Wagner, Brahms, Strauss, Tchaikovsky and Dukas are among those teased, and the close is wonderful. Brilliantly enjoyable as the work is, there’s a niggling lack of light and shade. Not the case with Rachmaninov’s music, though his underrated Piano Concerto no 1 contains some delectable soul-searching. Mostly though, the music fizzes with youthful joie de vivre, the occasionally terse phrases and frequent metre changes sounding much more like late Rachmaninov than the lush middle years. It unashamedly borrows from Grieg and Schumann, and its relative lack of popularity bothered the composer, who complained, when he announced a performance of this concerto in its revised version, that they do not protest, but I can see by their faces that they would prefer the Second or Third.” Strauss’s early Burleske for Piano and Orchestra is another neglected treat; a baggy, endearing single movement which looks back to Liszt as much as it anticipates mature Strauss. There are plenty of memorable ideas, notably a nifty timpani solo at the outset. Valerie Tryon’s performance is as convincing as any you’ll hear, and in all three works she receives excellent, alert backing from Jac van Steen’s Royal Philharmonic. It’s always a pleasure to come across great performances from artists who deserve to be better known. Tryon, UK born but long resident in Canada, made this disc when she was 78. She’s on superb form, her playing in these three youthful works full of sparky wit. –ArtsDesk, 07/02/15