Piano Concerto in B Flat; Weiniawski: Piano Concerto in G Minor, Hamish Milne (piano) BBC Scottish SO/Michal Dworzynski, Hyperion CDA 67791 **

As neglected composers go, Hermann Goetz (1840-1876) has rather a special place in Ireland. His 1874 opera, Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung (The Taming of the Shrew), was one of the Wexford Festival's offerings in 1991, and George Bernard Shaw thought it to be "the finest German comic opera apart from Die Meistersinger". You might not gauge the true stature of Goetz's music from Hamish Milne's approach to the Piano Concerto in B flat.

He seems to see Goetz primarily as a sweet, slightly sentimental melodist. His approach is dutiful and lingering to the point of sounding anaemic, and the injections of animation provided by conductor Michal Dworzynski can’t quite compensate. The coupling, a Lisztian concerto by Józef Wieniawski (1837-1912, brother of the more famous Henryk), is rather better served.

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