Lawrence Power, Alban Gerhardt: Brett Dean

The Strad Issue: April 2025

Description: A milestone set of live recordings does justice to a leading Australian

Musicians: Emma Bell, Elsa Dreisig (sopranos) Lawrence Power (viola) Alban Gerhardt (cello) Bartosz Glowacki (accordion) London Philharmonic Orchestra/Enrique Mazzola, Hannu Lintu, Edward Gardner, Karina Canellakis, Vladimir Jurowski

Works: Dean: Amphitheatre; Viola Concerto; In spe contra spem; Cello Concerto; Three Memorials; Notturno inquieto; The Players

Catalogue number: LPO LPO-0130 (2 CDs)

This is an exceptionally generous release, bringing together no fewer than seven major works by Australian composer and violist Brett Dean in live concert recordings captured during his three-season stint as the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s composer-in-residence (2020–23).

Its two string concertos are among the collection’s highlights. Dean wrote his deeply personal 2004 Viola Concerto for himself to perform, but British violist Lawrence Power gives the piece a winningly fresh account, so strongly characterised that it borders on the theatrical, often standing out in soliloquy-like playing against bleak or even threatening orchestral backdrops. There’s abundant bite and edge to his playing in the second movement ‘Pursuit’, as though he’s far from passive prey to the predatory orchestra, his playing soaring in keening lyricism and growling in gruff gutsiness.

The 2018 Cello Concerto, however, is a far brighter piece that casts its soloist and orchestra as amicable collaborators. Dean wrote it for Alban Gerhardt, who gives it a lithe – though no less committed – account, from the atmospheric, Messiaen-like birdsong of its scherzo-esque opening to the chamber intimacy of its accompanied cadenza.

The LPO is on outstanding form throughout the many performances, and though these are live recordings, there’s no compromise on sound detail or quality (and no intrusive noises or applause, either).

DAVID KETTLE