 Pianiste, chef d’orchestre, professeur et compositeur anglais, Cipriani Potter a été dans sa longue carrière estimé de Beethoven qu’il rencontra à Vienne, Mendelssohn et même Wagner qui dirigea l’une de ses symphonies. Sa période créatrice s’arrêta en 1837, mais il laisse un œuvre numériquement important, dominé par neuf (ou peut-être dix, une semble perdue) symphonies. Infatigable explorateur du répertoire du premier romantisme, Howard Griffiths exhume la 1° de 1826, aux accents dramatiques oscillant entre le dernier Haydn et le jeune Beethoven. Plus représentatif des virtuoses de son époque, le long et bavard Rondo (Alla militaire, sic ! 1827) rappelle que Potter était un pianiste hors pair, créateur de plusieurs concertos de Mozart et Beethoven en Angleterre. Quant à l’ouverture de Cymbelene pour une pièce de Shakespeare, elle montre que le musicien avait bien écouté Coriolan, Leonore ou Egmont et faisait partie de ceux pour qui les ouvertures de concert anticipaient déjà les futurs poèmes symphoniques lisztiens. Une découverte certes mineure mais intéressante défendue avec le brio qu’on lui connaît par Howard Griffiths, magistral et incomparable dans ce répertoire méconnu. (Richard Wander) The highly esteemed Cipriani Potter bequeathed a rich compositional oeuvre to posterity. Born in London in 1792, Potter received his education as a composer from Thomas Altwood, William Crotch, and Joseph Wölfl. He later traveled to Vienna, where he continued his studies with Aloys Förster on Beethoven’s recommendation. Back in England, he soon became a sought-after composer and pianist. During a commemorative event held by the Musical Association in London, he was praised for his nine symphonies – and in particular for the first, in G minor, which is heard on this new release. The first movement from the very start attests to Potter’s dramatic instinct; his favorite compositions included works charged with suspense like Mozart’s overture to Don Giovanni. Potter was one of the first renowned composers from England to write symphonies based on his experience of Mozart’s late oeuvre and Beethoven’s orchestral music. The furious "Allegro con spirito" first movement of his G minor symphony is a bold stroke of genius filled with powerful melodic invention in combination with masterful thematic development. The phenomenal pianist Potter also repeatedly presented cabinet pieces for the piano. He composed the »Introduction« followed by a "Rondo in the Military Style" of 1827 six years before his first piano concerto. Like the »Variazioni di Bravura on a Theme by Rossini "for piano and orchestra also dating from the late 1820s or the »Introduction and Rondo Giocoso" for solo piano, they offer listening pleasure in which Potter’s humorous side, a trait mentioned by many who knew him, is revealed.
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