I'm not surprised that you include Medtner 3 in a list that also has a work by Bax in it; the last part of the Medtner concerto , to my mind, could easily be mistaken for Bax.
I don't know the Healey Willan work; apparently he was the teacher of the critic/composer Cecil Gray who wrote, amongst many other contentious statements, in "A Survey of Contemporary Music" (1924) "...but the monstrous and unholy hybrid, begotten upon music by drama, which is the opera of Strauss, Puccini, and most other writers of to-day, is not a form at all. It is neither drama, music, nor anything whatsoever. So now let it dash its head on a rock and trouble us no more ! "
It appears that Cecil Gray's own operas, together with the rest of his music, long ago were dashed against a rock and have scarcely troubled anybody since they were written !
To each his own Rob, but I'm surprised that of the five piano concertos of Saint-Saens you choose no 2 as the best. Saint-Saens himself, rather piqued that only nos 2 & 4 of his concertos were ever played put a hand up with fingers splayed to a pianist who was about to perform the second concerto and said "You know I've written FIVE piano concertos? "
A lovely work that I don't think has been mentioned in these lists, and better than many that have, is the Debussy Fantaisie. And I'm surprised that the Delius Concerto (which Moiseiwitsch rated as one of the loveliest of 20c. piano concertos) hasn't figured much either.
Belatedly I now come up with my own list of favourites:-
Brahms PC 2 - have always been averse to Gilels / Jochum but take you choice of other versions - own favourite is CBS Serkin/Ormandy (I think)
Shostakovich PC 2 - Yes - I was conquered in this by the classic CBS LP - Bernstein and NYPO
Medtner PC 3
Schumann
Rachmaninov 1 and 4
Ireland: Legend for Piano and Orchestra
Saint-Saens: PC No.2
Scriabin - such a moving work - the old Melodiya performance has not yet been trounced.
Kabalevsky 2
Tchaikovsky 2
Bax Winter Legends (magnificently imaginative and dramatic) - not at all Celtic twilight
Mozart 22 24
Arensky
Bortkiewicz 2 3
Scharwenka 1-4
Moeran Rhapsody No 3
Harty PC - romantic, wild and woolly - Tchaikovskian yet ....
Goossens Phantasy Concerto
Jacob Rhapsody for piano and brass band - a surprisingly eager and romantic work.
Joseph Marx PC 1 (Romantic) and 2 (Castelli Romani)
Malcolm Williamson 2
Stanford PC2
Healey Willan - Brit-Canadian - work comes over as akin to Rachamninov
Rob
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