When people talk about the costs of overlooking the musical legacy of female composers, they’re talking about exactly the kind of thing that’s on offer in this scintillating new release: splendid music that never gets heard, in part because the musical world is far too cavalier about dismissing its creators. The headliner in this latest installment of Hyperion’s vast and excellent survey of the Romantic piano concerto is Amy Beach, the American composer who is often the go-to figure in any attempt to resuscitate the work of under-acknowledged women, and there’s no doubt that her 1899 Piano Concerto deserves pride of place—it’s a big, bold work that combines traditional craftsmanship and innovation in deft measure. But the revelation here is the D-Minor Piano Concerto by the much more obscure Englishwoman Dorothy Howell, whose writing is inventive, evocative and utterly beautiful. This is a piece that responds wonderfully to the efforts of pianist Danny Driver and conductor Rebecca Miller and that certainly merits wider exposure.

San Francisco Chronicle