Performing Mozart's A major Concerto K.488, with conductor Koji Toyoda and the 1988 Kusatsu Summer Academy Orchestra (photo by K. Hayashi)

CONCERTO REPERTOIRE

Roy Howat's concerto repertoire includes:

Bartók: Concerto no. 3; Concerto for 2 pianos & orchestra

Debussy: Fantaisie

Fauré: Ballade op. 19; Fantaisie op. 111

Franck: Symphonic Variations

Gershwin: Rhapsody in blue (original jazz orchestra version)

Litolff: Scherzo (from Concerto Symphonique no. 4)

Mozart: Nos 14 in A (K.414) and 19 to 27 (all the late concertos from K.459)

Poulenc: Concerto champêtre; Double concerto

Ravel: Concerto in G

Shostakovitch: Concerto no. 2 

Other concertos are available on request

Roy Howat is well known for background expertise that spans his repertoire, much of which he knows from the composers' manuscripts. His tempo and other corrections to Bartók's 3rd Piano Concerto (based on study of Bartók's manuscripts) were used by Peter Donohoe and Sir Simon Rattle for their EMI CD.

Roy's performances of Rhapsody in Blue with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and elsewhere, inspired by Gershwin's 1924 recording with the Paul Whiteman band, have caused delight by peeling layers of habit from this lively work.  After one of Roy's performances of the piece with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra one orchestral player asked "Do you play straight music too?"

Ravel's G major Concerto and Franck's Symphonic Variations are freed from false traditions that scramble one and weigh down the other, and Howat's performances of Fauré's two concertante works in the UK, Germany and New Zealand were hailed as revelations of Fauré's energy and freshness.

Debussy's rarely-heard Fantaisie comes with Debussy's unpublished orchestral reworking through Roy Howat's work with the Complete Debussy Edition; and the sparkle of his Mozart playing is backed up by manuscript studies and stylistic expertise that inform his own ornamentation and cadenzas, plus important corrections not found even in the Neue Mozart Ausgabe.