Romantic Piano Concerto
Castelli Romani for Piano and Orchestra

The Naxos label presses onward with one of their many key projects. The series of re-releases covering the music of Austrian composer Joseph Marx (1882-1964), pooled from the original recordings previously released on the ASV label. The music of Joseph Marx is brilliantly orchestrated and is an amalgam of styles borrowed from Richard Strauss, Bantock, Scriabin, Rachmaninov and Korngold. And if he wasn't trying to emulate the music of Respighi in his Castelli Romani, especially within the final movement, then I will start eating rocks. These impressive works for Piano and Orchestra bring together the melodramatic excesses of mid-20th century Hollywood cinema productions and highly romantic late 19th century ideals. If you like swells and peaks of emotion in your music, with a touch of bravura, then this CD is tailored to your tastes. One could say it's like Rachmaninov drenched in sunlight, and like Rachmaninov inflicts heavy technical demands on the pianist. After all, virtuoso Marc-André Hamelin himself recorded the aptly-named Romantic Piano Concerto for the highly successful Romantic Piano Concerto series on Hyperion. Pianist David Lively who studied under Claudio Arrau amongst others, is no slouch himself. He brings out every bit of color and sparkle within these scores, and ascends the technically demanding peaks of this music with aplomb and authentic musicianship, pulling off all the expressive magnitude this music calls for.

You know, we've come to love and appreciate the music of Beethoven, Tchaikovky, Rachmaninov, Chopin, etc ... because of our extensive exposure to it. Had the music of Joseph Marx been granted the same courtesy and become just as familiar, his too would now be a household name.