Unsung Rachmaninoffian Piano Concertos

[Ilja]

I just want to return to the Healey Willan Piano Concerto mentioned by Gareth. I downloaded the Ozolins performance and have just listened to it once through. It's a very enjoyable piece which is, as Gareth wrote, is an almost pure amalgam of Elgar (predominantly the first and third movements) and Rachmaninov (the slow movement). Great fun and well played too.

Indeed, although it almost falls under 'guilty pleasures' - Willan crosses the line into pastiche territory after about three seconds. Great fun, though.

[mjkFendrich]

Another recording, with Arnaldo Cohen and the Orquestra Sinfônica Petrobrás Pró Música under Roberto Tibiriçá, is also available (on a Brazilian label whose name eludes me for now), which IMO is quite a lot better and has vastly superior sound. The live version of that can be found on YouTube as well (although the third movement is cut off rather awkwardly to cut out the applause, which IIRC is on the CD). Finally, there is the recording with João de Souza Lima playing and the composer conducting, also on YouTube (no CD, to my knowledge). Sound is not great, but solid playing by De Souza Lima.

As already mentioned elsewhere (see my reply to the catalogue of Camargo Guarnieri's works) there is a
great blog named "Brasilian Concert Music" with tons of valuable links to Mediafire, offering e.g. the two
alternate recordings of the Tavares concerto mentioned by Ilja

             http://musicabrconcerto.blogspot.de/

[Ilja]

Oh, yummy.

[semloh]

Getting off-topic, but I must point out that many of the recordings available at that website (like so many others) are illegal uploads of commercial CDs, so it is a matter of conscience whether you access them! 

[Alan Howe]

An essential reminder - thanks!

[Ilja]

An essential reminder - thanks!

Good point there.

Slightly off-topic sigh: unfortunately, the situation with regard to copyrights, particularly internationally, is sometimes so oblique, that even with the best of intentions you still risk violating them when you download anything. Weirder still, if I download things from paid sites such as e-music, I still risk violating music publishers' copyrights. The situation is really ridiculous.

[Alan Howe]

Now that I've acquired a copy, the most Rachmaninovian piano concerto I have ever come across is definitely No.4 in E minor by André Mathieu, even if owes its existence to a reconstruction and orchestration project undertaken by one Gilles Bellemare. Nevertheless, even this piece has a personality of its own - a more modern Romanticism with a tinge of Gershwin, perhaps. Gorgeous, all the same. Fancy a real wallow? This is the work to go for...

[Peter1953]

I've listened to the audio excerpts and they sound very promising. I think it's difficult for any composer, if not impossible, to come even nearby Rachmaninov's overwhelming PC's (1-3, 4 is another thing). However, Mathieu's 4th must have been constructed under the influence of Rachmaninov.
Alan, thanks to your post I have to buy another CD, I guess. Can you advise me which recording? The one with the Tuscon Symphony Orchestra also features 4 Scènes de ballet, which samples trigger my appetite as well. But perhaps the recording with the Montreal SO is more powerful?

A interesting bloke, this André Mathieu (see Wikipedia). Never heard anything by him before.

[Alan Howe]

I have only heard the Analekta recording - but it is stunning in every way.

[Peter1953]

Yes, but both are on the Analekta label and played by Lefevre. I've read a less positive review on Amazon re the performance of the Tuscon SO.

[Alan Howe]

I can only find one version of PC4 on the Analekta label. Can you enlighten me further?

[Peter1953]

jpc offers these two:
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Andre-Mathieu-1929-1968-Klavierkonzert-Nr-4/hnum/4980491
http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Andre-Mathieu-1929-1968-Klavierkonzert-Nr-4/hnum/9385244
This is the review I was talking about.

[Alan Howe]

Ah, I see. If you look at the first item's contents (tracks 1 and 2 of CD2), you'll find it only contains the first and third movements of PC4. By the look of the details here...
http://www.amazon.com/Lenfant-prodige-Lincroyable-destin%C3%A9e-Mathieu/dp/B003F9N6KE/ref=sr_1_8_title_0_main?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1345391595&sr=1-8&keywords=andre+mathieu
...the two movements are excerpts from the full performance (three movements) on the second CD you have found at jpc.
As for the review - well, it may have a point, but there's no other recording available and, in any case, it's a very fine, passionate performance.

Hope this helps...

[TerraEpon]

Yes, that first disc is a compilation of previous recordings. There's only one of PC 4

(Concerto de Quebec got two separate recordings, I believe, however)

[febnyc]

How about a Rachmaninoffian concerto that was written, sort of, by Rachmaninoff himself?

Who has heard the Piano Concerto No. 5 - actually a transcription - by Alexander Warenberg - for piano and orchestra of Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony ?  I have and it is a winner.

Warenberg pared down the symphony to fit a three-movement concerto form (inter alia the scherzo is eliminated) but the piano carries the lush themes very well and sounds totally engaged.  The middle movement, with that unforgettable melody, comes off beautifully.