Oswald, Napoleão: Piano concertos CD review – distinct Romantic voices

Brazilian Henrique Oswald and Portuguese Alfredo Napoleão shared far more than their common birth year of 1852. They were both prodigy pianists of mixed European parentage and both more famous abroad than at home. But while their compositional style is firmly in the great 19th-century Romantic tradition, their voices are quite distinct. Oswald’s concerto, almost Russian in its intensity, gets off to a brooding, heroic start and melts just a little too far towards schmaltz in the slow movement before skittering off into a manic finale. Napoleão’s concerto No 2 in E flat minor grips with a first movement worthy of Chopin, and delights with a sparkling central scherzo but the wandering, occasionally twee third movement is disappointing, despite the dedicated playing of Artur Pizarro.