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#576176 - 09/22/08 03:40 PM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
Fleeting Visions Offline
1000 Post Club Member

Registered: 05/21/06
Posts: 1501
Loc: Champaign, IL
I think that the Bartok Rhapsody Op. 1 deserves some love (if you can call dominating the keyboard for it love- which I would, for the record.)
_________________________
Amateur Pianist, Scriabin Enthusiast, and Octave Demon

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#576177 - 09/22/08 08:20 PM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
wdot Offline
500 Post Club Member

Registered: 12/28/07
Posts: 640
Loc: SC
 Quote:
Originally posted by Wood-demon:
Apologies for my previous post...the Saint-Saens concertos have been mentioned, so I'll substitute the splendid "Romantic" Concerto by Joseph Marx instead. [/b]
Thanks for noticing!! I love the Saint-Saens pieces. French Mendelssohn.

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#576178 - 09/22/08 08:37 PM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
sotto voce Offline
6000 Post Club Member

Registered: 08/15/06
Posts: 6163
Loc: Briarcliff Manor, NY, USA
 Quote:
Originally posted by argerichfan:
 Quote:
Originally posted by Fleeting Visions:
What do you think of the Henselt concerto?
Rather fond of it myself. Terribly difficult of course, and that's certainly one reason why it's not encountered in the concert hall.

Has anyone ever heard it live? [/b]
I love the Henselt, too. The cantabile misterioso episode in the slow movement is lovely, and the finale reminds me of the finale of Chopin's Sonata Op. 58.

Steven
_________________________

"There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats."
—Albert Schweitzer

Chopin: Allegro de Concert Op. 46
Schumann: Toccata Op. 7
Fauré: Ballade Op. 19

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#576179 - 09/23/08 03:57 AM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
Wood-demon Offline
500 Post Club Member

Registered: 10/25/07
Posts: 607
Loc: UK
 Quote:
Originally posted by Fleeting Visions:
 Quote:
Originally posted by argerichfan:
 Quote:
Originally posted by Wood-demon:
The two MacDowell concertos are also worth getting to know, as is the concerto by Moszkowski.
Dvorak's Piano Concerto, though problematical, is too lovely to be overlooked.
I happened to catch the old Van Cliburn recording of the MacDowell D minor on the radio the other day- what a blistering perfomance! The Moszkowski is very fine, though I wonder if its infrequency in the concert hall is partly related to its difficulty, not to mention the sheer amount of notes!

The Dvorak is problematical, yes, but let's not get into that one... [/b]
The Dvorak is worth hearing, but not worth playing, IMHO. Besides that, the harmonic progressions of the slow movement immediately throw me off balance and I can't stand it. Then there's the infamous piano writing, which even the unauthorized revisions didn't completely fix.

MacDowell's effort is similarly worth hearing a few times, but not playing.

What do you think of the Henselt concerto? [/b]
Well, if everybody pianist thought the same way about the Dvorak Concerto no one would get a chance to hear it! The composer, apparently, intended to revise the awkward piano writing himself, but never got round to it. The published revision by Vilem Kurz is certainly more effective pianistically. Others who performed the work, like Rudolph Firkusny and Franz Reizenstein made their own adaptations although, nowadays, many pianists choose to stick to Dvorak's original version.
As for the Macdowell, I have performed the 2nd Concerto on three occasions so can't agree that it's not worth doing. I've never had the opportunity to play the 1st Concerto but like it very much.
I have played the Moszkowski twice. It's certainly difficult but beautifully written for the instrument. The orchestral accompaniment is not particularly demanding and can be managed by competent amateur players. Perhaps more pianists should take it up.
The Henselt Concerto, like the Dvorak, sets a big problem for certain players. Wasn't it Anton Rubinstein who gave up working on it because he thought that the writing was based on an abnormal formation of the hand? I believe that Claudio Arrau played the piece in his youth.
Like many of the concertos of the period it's something that I enjoy listening to now and then without it making a sufficient impression upon me to want to return to it frequently.

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#576180 - 09/23/08 05:10 AM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
izaldu Offline
1000 Post Club Member

Registered: 09/18/08
Posts: 1195
Loc:
Alkan's Concerto for solo Piano (if it applies to this thread)

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#576181 - 09/23/08 07:12 AM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
Robert Kenessy Offline
Full Member

Registered: 03/07/07
Posts: 389
Loc: Enebyberg Sweden
 Quote:
Originally posted by Fleeting Visions:
Here is what comes to mind:

Bartok #s 2 &3
...
[/b]
Why Bartók's #2 & 3 and not # 1 ?
_________________________
Robert Kenessy

.. it seems to me that the inherent nature [of the piano tone] becomes really expressive only by means of the present tendency to use the piano as a percussion instrument - Béla Bartók, early 1927.

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#576182 - 09/23/08 07:34 AM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
RogerW Offline
Full Member

Registered: 01/10/08
Posts: 430
Britten surely deserves to be mentioned in a thread like this!

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#576183 - 09/23/08 10:25 AM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
argerichfan Offline
7000 Post Club Member

Registered: 11/15/06
Posts: 7473
Loc: Pacific Northwest, US.
 Quote:
Originally posted by RogerW:
Britten surely deserves to be mentioned in a thread like this!
Aye, Britten wrote a very fine concerto. Also worthy of mention here is Young Apollo for piano and strings. Britten subsequently withdrew this early work and it wasn't revived until the '80's.

There's no consensus about Young Apollo's place in the Britten canon, but I love the work and find it irresistibly thrilling. Such athletic virtuosity!
_________________________
Jason

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#576184 - 09/23/08 10:47 AM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
argerichfan Offline
7000 Post Club Member

Registered: 11/15/06
Posts: 7473
Loc: Pacific Northwest, US.
 Quote:
Originally posted by Wood-demon:
Well, if everybody thought the same way about the Dvorak Concerto no one would get a chance to hear it! The composer, apparently, intended to revise the awkward piano writing himself, but never got round to it. The published revision by Vilem Kurz is certainly more effective pianistically...
My score has both versions of the piano part, and the Supraphon recording has Kvapil (a pianist otherwise unknownst to me) playing the original and Moravec playing the Kurz rewrite.

Moravec, unsurprisingly, plays it beautifully and almost convinces one that the Kurz should be used! Whist I won't make that claim, the original certainly has a folkish charm with piano writing similar to that in the chamber works. And yet... there are several moments wherein Kurz is simply more effective, making Dvorak's original all the more frustrating. I want my cake and eat it too.
 Quote:
As for the Macdowell, I have performed the 2nd Concerto on three occasions so can't agree that it's not worth doing. I've never had the opportunity to play the 1st Concerto but like it very much.
I agree with you about the D minor. The A minor by comparison is utterly conventional, with a very predictable -yet competant- handling of themes and development.

What saves the concerto, and makes it worthy of occasional revival, is the high quality of MacDowell's material. That concerto is full of great tunes! Who can resist the secondary theme in the first movement, to name one instance?
 Quote:
The Henselt Concerto, like the Dvorak, sets a big problem for certain players. Wasn't it Anton Rubinstein who gave up working on it because he thought that the writing was based on an abnormal formation of the hand? I believe that Claudio Arrau played the piece in his youth.
I believe it was Henselt's concerto plus the Op. 2 etudes which put Rubinstein over the brink.

Arrau talked about playing and recording the Henselt in later years, but obviously got bogged down with other projects. Such a pity nothing came of it all! He would have played that concerto superbly, far better than Lewenthal or Ponti. At least Hamelin was finally worth the wait.
_________________________
Jason

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#576185 - 09/23/08 11:02 AM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
Wood-demon Offline
500 Post Club Member

Registered: 10/25/07
Posts: 607
Loc: UK
 Quote:
Originally posted by argerichfan:
 Quote:
Originally posted by Wood-demon:
Well, if everybody thought the same way about the Dvorak Concerto no one would get a chance to hear it! The composer, apparently, intended to revise the awkward piano writing himself, but never got round to it. The published revision by Vilem Kurz is certainly more effective pianistically...
My score has both versions of the piano part, and the Supraphon recording has Kvapil (a pianist otherwise unknownst to me) playing the original and Moravec playing the Kurz rewrite.

Moravec, unsurprisingly, plays it beautifully and almost convinces one that the Kurz should be used! Whist I won't make that claim, the original certainly has a folkish charm with piano writing similar to that in the chamber works. And yet... there are several moments wherein Kurz is simply more effective, making Dvorak's original all the more frustrating. I want my cake and eat it too.
[/b]
The first Supraphon recording (of the Kurz revision) was made by Frantisek Maxian with Vaclav Talich conducting. Radoslav Kvapil recorded all of Dvorak's solo piano music for Supraphon. I have the Moravec recording but it's a while since I played it. If anyone had asked me earlier I would have said that he played a version that incorporated most of Kurz's revisions but reverted to the original score in places. I shall have to listen to it again while following the score to see if I have remembered the details wrongly.
The ubiquitous Michael Ponti also recorded the work but made a substantial cut in the first movement.
The first performance of the concerto in Britain appears to have been given by Harriet Cohen... she admitted that, because of her tiny hands, she had to re-write the piano part substantially.

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#576186 - 09/25/08 02:14 AM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
wr Offline
5000 Post Club Member

Registered: 11/23/07
Posts: 5429
 Quote:
Originally posted by BDB:
Stravinsky's Concerto, Concerto for 2 solo pianos, and his Capriccio. Also Poulenc's Concerto for 2 pianos. [/b]
Agreed. And the Poulenc single piano Concerto is a wonderful charmer, too, if you're in the mood for it. Also found under "P", the Prokofiev 5th is wonderful. As is the little-known Persichetti, which is one of the better products of mid-century American modern and has a decent recording on New World Records.

But there huge number of concertos worth hearing - I get the idea that many composers really put some of their best efforts into the form. Here are a few more I think haven't been mentioned that I like a lot:

Stenhammer 2nd (in the Solyom recording, especially)
Chavez
John Adams "Century Rolls"
Lou Harrison
Ginastera 1st
Lutoslawski
Ligeti
Blacher 1st, 2nd, and the Clementi Variations
Szymanowksi Symphonie Concertante (Sym. 4)
Francaix

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#576187 - 09/26/08 11:47 PM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
Synapse Offline
Full Member

Registered: 09/08/08
Posts: 68
Loc: Vermont
We're playing Ravel's G Major Concerto in my youth orchestra this year.

It's a tad easy, and admittedly there are some parts I dislike, but it has grown on me.

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#576188 - 09/27/08 01:40 AM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
Horowitzian Offline
8000 Post Club Member

Registered: 09/18/08
Posts: 8208
I heard a Nicolae Medtner piano concerto on my local classical radio station once, but the opus #
eludes me. I enjoyed hearing it immensely, as I like Medtner and wish that his music was played more widely than it is. Seems like it was in one movt. only, or something odd like that.
_________________________
~H

Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear weapons.

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#576189 - 09/27/08 03:22 AM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
wr Offline
5000 Post Club Member

Registered: 11/23/07
Posts: 5429
 Quote:
Originally posted by Horowitzian:
I heard a Nicolae Medtner piano concerto on my local classical radio station once, but the opus #
eludes me. I enjoyed hearing it immensely, as I like Medtner and wish that his music was played more widely than it is. Seems like it was in one movt. only, or something odd like that. [/b]
There are three, and all are enjoyable. I think the one that is officially in one movement is the first, but the third doesn't really have breaks between movements either, if I remember correctly.

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#576190 - 09/27/08 12:48 PM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
Horowitzian Offline
8000 Post Club Member

Registered: 09/18/08
Posts: 8208
 Quote:
Originally posted by wr:
There are three, and all are enjoyable. I think the one that is officially in one movement is the first, but the third doesn't really have breaks between movements either, if I remember correctly. [/b]
Thanks for the info, I'll see if I can find them anywhere.
_________________________
~H

Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear weapons.

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#576191 - 09/27/08 01:00 PM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
Horowitzian Offline
8000 Post Club Member

Registered: 09/18/08
Posts: 8208
Medtner's piano concerti are all on IMSLP :

Op. 33 in C minor

Op. 50 in C minor

Op. 60 in E minor
_________________________
~H

Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and nuclear weapons.

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#576192 - 09/27/08 01:30 PM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
argerichfan Offline
7000 Post Club Member

Registered: 11/15/06
Posts: 7473
Loc: Pacific Northwest, US.
 Quote:
Originally posted by Horowitzian:
Medtner's piano concerti are all on IMSLP
Unfortunately the 2nd and 3rd concertos are Non-PD US and Non-PD EU.
_________________________
Jason

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#576193 - 09/29/08 02:07 PM Re: What Piano Concerto's would you recommend?
howie Offline
Junior Member

Registered: 09/28/08
Posts: 13
Loc: knoxville, TN
1. Chopin's second piano cto in f min.
2. Beethovens Choral fantasy in c minor. (Maybe his greatest
work, but not played often.)
3. Beethoven's 5th pno concerto (Eb, I believe) "The
Emperor Concerto", really a great work, also.

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