In the United States today, the name MacDowell is more likely to be associated with the artists’ colony established at the composer’s summer home in Peterborough, Vermont, than with the composer himself. Yet by the time of his death in 1908 at the age of 47 until well after the First World War, Edward Alexander MacDowell was arguably the best-known American composer. His two piano concertos are early works. The A minor Concerto, dedicated to Liszt, was premiered in 1882 and the Second in D minor, dedicated to MacDowell’s early mentor Teresa Carreño, in 1889. The Second has long been the more popular, with champions including Van Cliburn, Claudette Sorel, Eugene List, Andre Watts and Robert Szidon. This century, however, the First Concerto seems to be coming into its own, perhaps as part of an overall MacDowell revival. In addition to this splendid new Chandos release with Xiayin Wang as soloist, the First Concerto has been recorded by Thomas Tirino (Centaur), while Vivian Rivkin, Stephen Prutsman, Donna Amato and Seta Tanyel have recorded them both.

Xiayin Wang received her early training in Shanghai. She moved to New York in 1997, completed her advanced degrees at the Manhattan School of Music and now teaches at the Mannes School of Music in New York. Her sound is rich and full, without ever seeming harsh. She is particularly impressive in fleet, leggiero playing and her phrasing feels inerrant and inevitable. All this stands her in good stead in the Concerto, which abounds in challenging and idiomatic writing. Wang’s fluent reading is perfectly proportionate and sounds as though it couldn’t be easier. The Andante tranquillo exudes warmth and tenderness, while the fleet Presto finale effortlessly assumes a heroic stance.

Naturally, a good part of this performance’s success must be credited to John Wilson and the BBC Philharmonic. The care they lavish on the purely orchestral pieces of the programme is beguiling and the engineers have captured their alluringly luxurious sound. Victor Herbert’s orchestration of the piano piece ‘To a Wild Rose’ is utterly disarming.

This review originally appeared in the SPRING 2025 issue of International Piano