Spirited and authentic piano concertos

Grazyna Bacewicz Piano Concerto; Alexandre Tansman Piano Concerto no. 1

I never (okay, I rarely) get tired of Rachmaninov, Brahms and Beethoven Piano Concertos, but I often think that perhaps it's time to expand the repertoire with a few fresh pieces. Here are two that fit the bill, beautifully played by the marvellous young Polish pianist Julia Kociuban. Alexandre Tansman's Piano Concerto no. 1 is from 1925; he wrote a second two years later, the year he turned thirty. It has every evidence of Tansman's melodic gift, which was to serve him well in his Hollywood years during WWII. But what it mainly sounds like is Modernist Paris, the fresh and lively milieu of Ravel and Stravinsky. At this point his music isn't especially Polish. It's telling that Honegger and Milhaud pressed him to join Les Six; he declined because he wanted to maintain his independence. But this Concerto at least would fit in perfectly with the avant garde French group's music of the day.

Grazyna Bacewicz also spent time in Paris, studying in the 1930s with Nadia Boulanger. However, her Piano Concerto, from 1949, is very much Polish in style, with folkloric sounds and Polish dances. Again, Kociuban is outstanding in both the virtuoso passages as well as more contemplative ones. She knows Bacewicz's music well, having played the great Piano Sonata no. 2 in the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition. She receives spirited and completely authentic support in both works from the  Łódź-based Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Orchestra. Both Tansman and Bacewicz are Łódź natives. Plus, how often does an orchestra named after a great piano virtuoso get to play piano concertos? What a marvellous recording!