Pejačević’s 1913 Piano Concerto is a big, bold, exhilarating affair which seems to look backward to Brahms and forwards to Rachmaninov and even early film-scores in some of its sweeping, expansive themes. Donohoe and Oramo do it full justice, and the Symphony in F sharp minor is equally worth hearing, with especially striking orchestration in the Scherzo and an Appassionato finale which carries all before it. (Catherine Cooper)

On Friday, April 29, 2022, Chandos Records released a new CD – Dora Pejačević! The edition brings recordings of two orchestral works by this certainly the most famous Croatian composer in the world. Symphony in F sharp minor, Op. 41 and Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 33 with Peter Donohoe as a soloist in December 2021 were superbly recorded in London by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of their chief conductor Sakari Oramo. The producer of the CD is Brian Pidgeon, and the engineers are Ralph Couzens, Jonathan Cooper and Alexander James. The Croatian Music Information Centre of the Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall also took part in the realization of this culturally extremely valuable project for Croatia.

The sound carrier is available on the Publisher’s website.