This oddly chosen program is worth having for Tasmin Little’s excellent account of the Violin Concerto under Mackerras, and for Kars’ appealing solo work in the rarely heard but very pretty Piano Concerto with the LSO under Gibson. As these pieces tend to come and go in the catalog, having them readily available domestically will make this disc self-recommending for Delians. It doesn’t hurt to have Julian Lloyd Weber and Bengt Forsberg’s excellent account of the Two Pieces for Cello and Piano, and Mackerras offers his usual expertise in On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring (with Little mistakenly listed as a soloist).
It’s a mystery, though, why Decca chose to reissue this hissy, scruffy, 1953 mono Brigg Fair from Collins and a tonally unappealing LSO, particularly when Mackerras’ fine version was ready to hand. Still, there’s more than 60 minutes of fine music before we even get to this last item, and anyone who cares about this composer already will have Beecham or (better still) Ormandy on Sony. It’s still a bargain given the interest of the two concertos, so the rating ignores Brigg Fair’s interpretive and sonic limitations.
