Vaughan Williams/Mathias: Fantasy for Piano & Orchestra - Mark Bebbington, Ulster Orchestra, George Vass

This release is another spectacular coup for SOMM, as it includes two world premiere recordings; RVW’s Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra and Mathias’s Piano Concerto No.1. They are coupled with Mathias’s Piano Concerto No. 2 which has rarely been recorded.

Vaughan Williams began this Fantasia in 1896 and revised it in 1904. The manuscript was deposited in the British Library and was removed from circulation by the composer’s widow.

2nd October 2011

“[the Vaughan Williams] offers fascinating glimpses of his influences and clearly points the way towards the greatness that was to come. It joins another student work, William Mathias's wonderfully angular first piano concerto, in a striking performance which, coupled with the second from 1961, brings an unjustly neglected composer back into the limelight.”