Stéphan Elmas: Piano Concertos Nos.1 & 2—Tasmanian Symphony/Howard Shelley, piano (Hyperion 68319)
Hyperion's Record of the Month is Volume 82 of the label’s Romantic Piano Concerto Series. Howard Shelley and the Tasmanian Symphony display the appealing, warmly Romantic bloom on concertos by a composer who may be unknown to you. Program annotator Jeremy Nicholas says they suggest the spirit of an earlier generation—both works date from the 1880s—but the music of the Armenian Stéphan Elmas always seems to retain its own distinctive voice. Elmas’ Piano Concerto No. 1 appears to be the earliest such piece written by an Armenian. Amazingly, the composer was a mere twenty years old when he wrote it—presumably to showcase his own pianistic skills. The Stéphan Elmas Foundation lists five works for piano and orchestra (including two of his four piano concertos on this disc), among pieces for solo piano, chamber works and some vocal works. All of this begs the questions: who is Stéphan Elmas, and why has he fallen into almost complete obscurity? There is a certain amount about his life and career on the Internet, but in more than a score of generally informative and reliable reference books and contemporary biographies, Elmas is spectacularly absent. Exactly why will be an even greater mystery after you hear these charming works!