Smaller concertos for piano and modest orchestral forces were a feature of British composition in the first half of the 20th century. Often they were written for a special occasion, and typically vanished into oblivion thereafter.
During the COVID period we were looking for things to record with small numbers of players, and stumbled across this treasury: short concertos written for entertainment that don’t outstay their welcome.
The works on this CD travel from the innocent pastiche of Geoffrey Bush’s tribute to Arne, Edmund Rubbra’s student essay, through the ‘Blues’ of Arthur Benjamin, the serial language of Humphrey Searle, the drama of Elizabeth Maconchy, and the bold humour of film composer John Addison.
It is all great fun, and has never been recorded - apart from the Benjamin recorded just once, back in 1959. Simon Callaghan and Martyn Brabbins team-up to raise a smile, enjoying the lighter side of musical life.

Callaghan’s current repertoire includes over fifty concertos, highlights of the standard solo and chamber works of the 19th and 20th centuries, and much that is rare and unexplored. One cornerstone of Callaghan’s work is his commitment to British music.
“Clearly a musician of curiosity and discernment, Callaghan’s robust piano-playing is also thoughtful, subtle and refined.” Gramophone

Martyn Brabbins is Music Director of the English National Opera. An inspirational force in British music, Brabbins has had a busy opera career since his early days at the Kirov and more recently at La Scala, the Bayerische Staatsoper, and regularly in Lyon, Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Antwerp. He guests with top international orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw, San Francisco Symphony, DSO Berlin and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, as well as the Philharmonia, BBC Symphony and most of the other leading UK orchestras.