Danny Driver : Recordings

York Bowen - the Complete Works for Violin & Piano

Hyperion — Wed, 01 May 2013 00:00:00 -0400

Young virtuoso Chloë Hanslip and York Bowen specialist Danny Driver present Bowen’s complete works for violin and piano. Many of these works have never been recorded or indeed published before, and have been excavated from the archives by Driver himself. This double album is therefore a valuable resource for admirers of a composer whom Hyperion has done so much to champion through recordings. This body of work includes juvenilia, miniatures (written with an eye to academic performance during Bowen’s years as a professor at the Royal Academy of Music, but all impressive enough in quality to be concert works), his two Violin Sonatas, a Suite and a number of single-movement works. All show a superb composer of chamber music, a genuine original with a performer’s ear.

C P E Bach Keyboard Sonatas Volume 2

Hyperion — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788), second son of Johann Sebastian, was both revered and criticized by his contemporaries for his bold departures from conventional modes of musical expression. He perfected a highly original and intensely personal compositional style known as the empfindsamer Stil (literally, the ‘sensitive style’), which incorporates frequent mood changes, abundant rests and ‘sighing’ motifs, the juxtaposition of contrasting rhythmic figures, deceptive cadences, and dramatic, rhetorical harmonic interjections.

This record follows on from Driver's first volume of C P E Bach Keyboard Sonatas (released in 2010). The CD includes four sonatas but also a Rondo (D minor) and an astonishing Fantasy (F sharp minor) that bears witness to Bach's renowned improvising abilities.

International Record Review 'Outstanding' Award

Daily Telegraph Classical CD of the Week

Limelight Magazine 'Instrumental Disc of the Month'

Saint-Sa

ASO LIVE — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 00:00:00 -0400

This is a live recording of Danny Driver's performance at the Bard Music Festival (2012) with the American Symphony Orchestra and conductor Leon Botstein.

Erik Chisholm - Piano Concertos

Hyperion — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 00:00:00 -0400

Erik Chisholm (1904-1965) was one of Scotland's most prominent musicians, a fine pianist, organist, composer, conductor and energetic music promoter. This record presents the first commerical recording of his Piano Concerto no 2, the 'Hindustani', based on Indian scales, alongside the 'Piobaireachd' Concerto (no 1), in which Chisholm makes use of traditional Highland Bagpipe music.

Orchestral Choice, BBC Music Magazine [June 2012]

International Record Review 'OUTSTANDING' Award

'The composer and his music are honoured by performances of considerable stature. Danny Driver is superb in the at times fearsome demands Chisholm makes upon the soloist and is partnered by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under one of the most exciting young British conductors I have heard for some time, Rory Macdonald … The recorded balance between piano and orchestra is splendid; the booklet notes are by Chisholm's distinguished biographer John Purser; and all in all this disc has to be counted one of the most important contributions to British recorded music for some considerable time' [IRR]

"McBartok", as Chisholm became known, based his first piano concerto on the classical music of the pipes, and highly attractive it is, too; full of provocative rhythm and utterly devoid of cliché. His second is even more elaborate, drawing its inspiration from the beguiling ragas of Hindustan, their evocative intervals and sensuous, twisting melodies handled beautifully here by Danny Driver in this premiere recording' [The Observer]

Walter Arlen - Es geht wohl anders

Gramola — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Rebecca Nelsen (sopran)

Christian Immler (bariton)

Danny Driver (klavier)

Walter Arlen ist einer der letzten noch lebenden Komponisten der Generation, die von den Nationalsozialisten ausgelöscht werden sollte: Er hat nach seiner Flucht aus Wien im Jahr 1939 nicht nur als Musikkritiker für die Los Angeles Times, sondern auch als Gründer des Music Departments der Loyola Marymount University wesentlich zum kulturellen Transfer österreichischer Musiktradition beigetragen. Der 1920 geborene Arlen war immer ein Komponist der kleinen Form, er hat tonal komponiert. Ein großer Querschnitt durch sein bedeutendes Liedschaffen erklingt nun auf der vorliegenden Doppel-CD.

Benjamin Dale - Piano Music

Hyperion — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:00:00 -0400

The monumental Piano Sonata in D minor was composed by a young Benjamin Dale while he was still a student at the Royal Academy of Music. Dale’s contemporaries included the burgeoning composer-pianists Arnold Bax and York Bowen. Dale dedicated the sonata to his close friend Bowen, who gave the premiere of the work at the Academy in February 1905 and astonished listeners with its daring structural originality and thematic integrity and its breathtaking tonal colours. The elaborate form encompasses an impressive amalgamation of the traditional slow movement, scherzo and finale into an inventive set of variations. Also featured are Dale’s charming Prunella and Night Fancies in which Dale explores impressionistic colourings. Rather aptly, the final work on the disc is the first recording of York Bowen’s Miniature Suite in C major, the 'Humoresque' of which is dedicated reciprocally to Dale.

International Record Review - 'Outstanding'

Gramophone Recommends

Editor's Choice - Classic FM Magazine

Balakirev - Piano Sonata and other works

Hyperion — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 00:00:00 -0500

This disc looks beyond the ubiquitous Islamey to some of Balakirev’s most important works – which are curiously underrepresented on disc. The Piano Sonata in B flat minor is a major achievement of the period and one quite unlike any contemporary large-scale piano composition. Its absence from the standard repertoire is unfortunate, as it is fully worthy of such a place.

Danny Driver continues his Hyperion exploration of the piano repertoire with delightful interpretations of Mily Balakirev. In particular, the piano sonata in B flat minor is a terrific, big-hearted piece, unlike anything else from its period, and its neglect in the concert hall is surely due a reappraisal … Impressive playing throughout ensures that your finger won't stray far from the replay button' (The Observer)

BBC Music Magazine 'Instrumental Choice' (5 stars)

Daily Telegraph Classical CD of the Week

C P E Bach - Keyboard Sonatas

Hyperion — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0400

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788), second son of Johann Sebastian, was both revered and criticized by his contemporaries for his bold departures from conventional modes of musical expression. He perfected a highly original and intensely personal compositional style known as the empfindsamer Stil (literally, the ‘sensitive style’). As the works on this recording show, Bach’s approach to musical expressiveness found voice in frequent mood changes, abundant rests and ‘sighing’ motifs, the juxtaposition of contrasting rhythmic figures, deceptive cadences, and dramatic, rhetorical harmonic interjections.

Emanuel Bach’s music breaks dramatically away from, yet also builds upon, the early eighteenth-century style perfected by his father. His compositions mark one of the first—and among the most inspired—repudiations of the baroque aesthetic, in which a single unified mood dominates each movement. Emanuel Bach composed more than three hundred keyboard works during his lifetime—all of the works on this recording were composed during the 1740s, while in the service of King Frederick II of Prussia.

'Danny Driver, a recent addition to Hyperion's bejewelled roster of pianists, makes his superlative case for music that is as inventive as it is unsettling. Playing with imperturbable authority, he captures all the mercurial fits and starts of the G minor Sonata … It would be impossible to over-estimate Driver's impeccable technique and musicianship, and also a warmth missing from Pletnev's earlier and razor-sharp recital … This is one of the finest of all recent keyboard issues and Hyperion's sound and presentation are ideal' (Gramophone - Editor's Choice)

Top Ten Classical CDs of 2010 (NPR)

York Bowen - The Piano Sonatas

Hyperion — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0400

Soon after recording Bowen's 3rd and 4th Piano Concertos, Danny Driver moved on to the piano sonatas. This 2-CD set of Bowen’s piano sonatas is a uniquely important collection, containing three premiere recordings, including two recordings of previously unpublished sonatas performed (with special permisson) from the manuscripts. The recording was nominated for a 2010 Gramophone Award.

'No better example of Hyperion's founding principles could be imagined than this disc of three premiere recordings contributing to the first survey of the complete sonatas by an unjustly neglected composer … Danny Driver is the ideal advocate for this glorious music, playing with razor-sharp articulation and a rich, organ-like sonority … Driver is an artist who is able to transcend the sterile surrounds of the studio and give 'real' performances, an early Award nominee for next year' (Gramophone)

The Romantic Piano Concerto Vol 46 - York Bowen

Hyperion — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0400

York Bowen (1884-1961) was an English composer-pianist of the highest order whose work is now being reappraised both on record and in concert.

Piano Concerto No 3 is a vigorous one-movement work with three well-defined sections of varying tempos in Fantasia style. Bowen’s sparkling performances of it drew plaudits from contemporary critics, who hailed it as his best composition thus far.

The Piano Concerto No 4 (said by Sorabji to be the greatest work for piano and orchestra ever written by an Englishman) is a large-scale Romantic, virtuoso work, impressionistic solo passages alternating freely with Straussian orchestral textures throughout. Bowen considered the work his best composition for the piano and an important addition to the concerto literature.

Danny Driver is partnered by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and conductor Martyn Brabbins in this recording.