RPC Vol. 54

[eschiss1]

opus 87 (or 87a, or 87b- will have to check?) in the work catalog of one or the other of them -yes.

[JimL]

I'm not so sure about that.  I think Moscheles' Op. 87 is his own 5th PC.  And I'm pretty sure that the concerto was never published, and is an early work for Mendelssohn, like the pair of two-piano concertos and the various works for string orchestra.  If it had an opus number in his catalog it would be low, not up in the 80s.  Unless, that is, he withheld it from publication for 15 years and then put it into his Opera.

P.S. I must have been posting while you were modifying.  Yes, it's possible it is in the Moscheles catalogue under an Opus 87a or b listing.

[TerraEpon]

The Moschles collaboration is apparently Fantasy and Variations on Weber's La Preciosa, and I have it listed for piano and orchestra, not two pianos and orchestra -- I assume I got this instrumentation from Mendelssohn's themematic catalog. Interestingly, the book I have puts the piece under two pianos ALONE....so I dunno.

[JimL]

Different work, I believe.  There is a concerto as well, for two pianos and orchestra, apart from the concertos that Mendelssohn composed by himself.  I've seen references to it from more than one source.  I don't make stuff like that up off the top of my head, you know. 

[TerraEpon]

Well it's not in the thematic catalog from just a couple years ago. So...

[JimL]

It might be in Moscheles' 

[eschiss1]

hrm. according to Todd (Mendelssohn: A Life in Music)  Moscheles' opus 87b (published and I believe also composed 1833) is the Moscheles/Mendelssohn variations. Not denying there might be a concerto too but perhaps without opus no. or with a different one. (Moscheles appears, Todd writes, to have edited the final product heavily, or one guesses so as Mendelssohn complained he hardly recognized a measure of the final version.) (Link.)

[pianoconcerto]

hrm. according to Todd (Mendelssohn: A Life in Music)  Moscheles' opus 87b (published and I believe also composed 1833) is the Moscheles/Mendelssohn variations. Not denying there might be a concerto too but perhaps without opus no. or with a different one. (Moscheles appears, Todd writes, to have edited the final product heavily, or one guesses so as Mendelssohn complained he hardly recognized a measure of the final version.) (Link.)

I have the Preciosa Vars. listed in my online discography of music for piano and orchestra.  It's been recorded commercially at least twice:

Mendelssohn, Felix and Moscheles, Ignaz (1794-1870)
Variations on a Theme from Weber's "Preciosa" for 2 Pianos and Orchestra, Op. 87b
Schwann VMS 2088:  Anthony and Joseph Paratore/RIAS Sinfonietta/Uroš Lajovic (arr. by Hans Priegnitz)
Turnabout TV 34821:  Martin Berkofsky, David Hagen/Berlin SO/Lutz Herbig (said to be the "first recording based on the original version", but I'm not sure about this based on Michael Cooper's claim below.  A hand-copied score was found in the Otillie Sutro collection that also yielded the Bruch 2-Piano Concerto.  Supposedly Martin Berkofsky then located most of the orchestral parts at the Library of Congress and copied the missing ones from the score).

According to Cooper, the manuscript of the orig. version played on May 1, 1833 is in the Scientific Music Library of the St. Petersburg Conservatory.  See other details in <http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Knowing+Mendelssohn%3A+a+challenge+from+the+primary+sources.-a0122914505>.  Cooper arranged for the 2009 world premiere of this at Southwestern Univ. and this can be seen on youtube <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54HMxZDzlJ8>.  See also the story at <http://www.southwestern.edu/newsroom/story.php?id=619>. The orchestration here is similar to that on the Turnabout recording; Jonathan Bellman reconstructed the piano parts. 

Perhaps some of the confusion regarding a 2-piano concerto composed jointly by Mendelssohn and Moscheles stems from the fact that Mendelssohn's 2-Piano Concerto in E survives in autographs by both composers.  Stephan Lindeman has written about this. 

[TerraEpon]

...that's even more odd. The thematic catalog (again) puts it squarely in the concerto section.

[JimL]

Funny.  I could have sworn I saw in a Mendelssohn bio somewhere that there was a full-blown concerto collaboratively composed by them after Felix completed his two works.  I mean it could have been a liner note or something, but there was no mention of variations, or Weber.  However, nusuth.  Said work would still be stylistically compatible with Kalkbrenner if a recording of his two-piano concerto is in the pipeline.

[fyrexia]

I dont know if members ever seen it.
I uploaded a time ago the Kalkbrenner PC no.2 on youtube with the score.
A broadcasted recording. Performers are shown in my video description.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MCGXkRqQPM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXybZoZYMko
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7hufyMIFz4

All best,

Tony

[JimL]

Thank you Tony.  You've answered a lot of questions.  The 2nd Kalkbrenner concerto is in E minor which means the 3rd is the one in F-sharp minor so playfully mocked by Schumann in the NZM.

[albion]

Just to alert members to the fact that this much-anticipated release is now available to pre-order from amazon.co.uk, the price currently being £10.54 with free delivery -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Romantic-Concertos-Concertstuck-Symphonic-Variations/dp/B00570JX24/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313066957&sr=8-1

[albion]

Whilst impatiently waiting for the actual disc to arrive in the post, I downloaded Cowen's Concertstuck from the Hyperion site and have listened through several times following the IMSLP full score (strongly recommended) -

http://imslp.org/wiki/Konzertst%C3%BCck_for_Piano_and_Orchestra_(Cowen,_Frederic_Hymen)

This is a lovely piece which, for all the surface attraction of the orchestration and pianistic fireworks, really repays some close attention in terms of structure and melodic variation - a very soundly constructed multi-sectional format allows for enough variety within the whole but (unlike the Indian Rhapsody) the piece does not seem like an amalgam of disjointed 'bits and pieces' thrown into a melting pot.

Oh, and it receives a superb performance too!

[reineckeforever]

Is it possible to find the score of Highlands Concerto by Somervell?..About this CD it is the only one not founded on IMSLP
Andrea