John Ireland, Piano Concerto in E-flat

The Piano Concerto in E-flat was John Ireland's only concerto. It was composed in 1930, and given its first performance on 2 October of that year by its dedicatee, Helen Perkin (1909-1996), at a Promenade Concert in the Queen's Hall. The work was an immediate success, and it was frequently performed by pianists such as Clifford Curzon, Moura Lympany, Eileen Joyce, Gina Bachauer and Arthur Rubinstein. While it is considered one of the best piano concertos ever written by an Englishman, it is not often heard nowadays and is not part of the standard repertoire.