Samuel Coleridge-Taylor & Arthur Hinton: Piano Quintets & York Bowen: Phantasie

The 18-year-old Samuel Coleridge-Taylor played the piano in his own Quintet in G minor at a concert in London on October 9, 1893. This opened the door for him to enter the Royal College of Music. Unfortunately, his career lasted only a short time. He died in 1912 at the age of 37. – The young piano virtuoso York Bowen entered the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) at the age of only 14.

His Romantic Fantasy for Violin and Piano in E minor was probably written in 1913 at the height of his career. The outbreak of World War I prevented its publication. – Arthur Hinton, a violinist by training, wrote his Piano Quintet in G minor for a fellow professor at RAM, the Austrian violinist Hans Wessely, who first performed it with his quartet, presumably with Hinton’s wife, the concert pianist Katharine Goodson.

There’s a dazzling sheen to both the recording and performance of these British chamber works. I’ll always love the lilting Larghetto of Coleridge-Taylor’s Piano Quintet in Gminor, but it’s a real treat to discover Arthur Hinton and his own colourful Piano Quintet. Bowen’s Phantasie positively fizzes. — BBC Music Magazine, January 2022, 5 out of 5 stars