BRITISH PIANO CONCERTOS
with pianist Clare Hammond
and the BBC Symphony Orchestra
conducted by George Vass
“… shimmering pianism and lightly-worn virtuosity”
BBC Music Magazine
“… a pianist of extraordinary gifts”
Gramophone Magazine
Pianist Clare Hammond and the BBC Symphony Orchestra release a disc of concertos by Tippett, Britten and Walton.
On the 10 October 2025, Clare Hammond releases her seventh disc for BIS Records with three major works for piano and orchestra by Michael Tippett, Benjamin Britten and William Walton, performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conductor George Vass. This album includes the first recording of the revised version of Walton’s Sinfonia Concertante since 1970, and forms a vital and memorable portrait of the mid-twentieth century British piano concerto.
Tippett was inspired by Gieseking’s rendition of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto to write a work “in which the piano is used once again for its poetic capabilities”. Its premiere in 1956 was overshadowed by controversy when soloist Julius Katchen walked out, declaring the piece unplayable. Emphasising a collaborative rather than confrontational relationship between piano and orchestra, this is a true masterpiece and the central work of this programme.
As a young man, Britten was commissioned to write Diversions for pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm during the First World War. It is a vibrant and ingenious response to the challenge of writing for left hand alone, yet was altered significantly by Wittgenstein. He inserted three extra cadenzas and rescored one variation, the ‘Adagio’, for piano solo, leading Britten to state that he had ‘wrecked my Diversions’ at the premiere in Philadelphia. Clare completed her doctoral thesis on this work, and Ravel’s Concerto pour la main gauche, in 2007.
Walton’s Sinfonia Concertante was originally composed as a ballet score for Diaghilev in 1926. After it was rejected, Walton reworked it as a concert piece and, in 1943, revised the work, simplifying the textures. The revised version has only been recorded twice, both times with the composer conducting: first with Phyllis Sellick and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in 1945, then with Peter Katin and the London Symphony Orchestra in 1970.
Clare says “these pieces cover the gamut of human emotion and experience, from the ethereal to the viscerally exciting, from deep introspection to pure elation. To work with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and George Vass on this project was a dream. I had to keep pinching myself during the orchestral tutti. Their performances were entrancing!”
Described as a pianist who “effortlessly combines technique and expressivity, virtuosity and narrative” (Diapason), Clare makes her debut at London’s Royal Albert Hall in September in Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Christopher Warren-Green.
Watch the trailer at: https://youtu.be/QWsrN5pXH2M