ProStudioMasters.com

"No-one coming to this ambitious canvas for the first time could fail to be struck by Hickox’ s excitingly committed and typically red-blooded handling of what is a most imposing and rewarding collection… Howard Shelley is the fearless soloist and he receives alert support from Hickox and the Melbourne SO. Eminently truthful sound, too, with an astutely judged balance throughout. I doubt whether many more sheerly enjoyable discs will come my way during the remainder of 2009." - Gramophone "Howard Shelley plays with an imposing sound that projects the ornate fiddly piano writing through Goossens’s hectic orchestration, and Richard Hickox (in his last recording) holds [it] together expertly." - International Piano This release has sadly proved to be Richard Hickox’s final recording. The disc was intended as the first in a cycle devoted to orchestral works by Sir Eugene Goossens. Goossens is principally remembered as a conductor; however, during the 1920s he was ranked as composer alongside Bax, Bridge and Walton, but his colourful, expressive writing fell out of fashion in the 1950s and ’60s and his works are little known today. The Phantasy Concerto, here receiving its premiere recording, features Howard Shelley as soloist. It is coupled with the melodious and imaginative Symphony No. 1. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is a noted Goossens specialist and indeed, after emigrating to Australia to become Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and director of the New South Wales Conservatorium, Goossens became one of the most important figures in that country’s musical life.