Unsung Rachmaninoffian Piano Concertos

[Alan Howe]

We all love making lists, don't we

Try moderating them and ensuring they have some relevance to the topic in hand! For myself, I make my own lists for my own purposes, but I wouldn't (often) make them public...

[thalbergmad]

We all love making lists, don't we

Not really. A list with no supporting information is as dry as old bones.

Thal

[febnyc]

Re the Wiklund PCs, how does the new Hyperion disc compare to the old recording on Caprice?

Sorry, but I have not heard the Hyperion.  The Caprice performances are very good and satisfying enough for me.

[Alan Howe]

I have both Wiklund CDs. You can remain totally content with the Caprice recordings.

[kyjo]

Thanks Alan and febnyc for the advice on the Wiklund CDs. I think I'll get the Caprice recording, which includes the symphonic poem Night Tide and Sunrise (I think that's the title). I"ll skip the Hyperion CD, since the Konzerstuck is also on a Sterling CD with works by Ludvig Norman and Ture Rangstrom.

[Alan Howe]

If you want to know more about the background of PC4 by André Mathieu - which is indeed very much in the style of Rachmaninov (in fact the great man declared the young Mathieu to be a genius) - then do follow this intriguing link:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=202516

[TerraEpon]

Mathieu's Concerto de Quebec is also very much in the style.

[kyjo]

Andre Mathieu is a very intriguing figure. I cannot thank Alain Lefevre enough or bringing this wonderful music to light. Maybe he should join this forum! Since the Concerto de Quebec is his third, I am wondering what the first and second sound like. Does anyone know if they exist, and if they do, of any plans of Lefevre (or someone else) to record them? Now if someone could only do justice to Roger Sacheverell Coke like Lefevre has done to Mathieu!

[X. Trapnel]

Just a brief, skeptical note. Rachmaninoff is one of my absolute favorite composers and I can't really think of any other composer's music that really sounds like his rather than having a very general stylistic affinity (which of course brings us to the Hyperion series). The closest I can think of is the Romantic Concerto of Joseph Marx, which has some sporadically Rachmaninoffian passages, the slow movement in particular with the last few bars sounding like the real thing. SVR apart, it's a magnificent work like its piano and orchestra sibling, the Castelli Romani.

Some of Nikolai Tcherepnin's solo piano music could be mistaken for Rachmaninoff.

[febnyc]

Thanks Alan and febnyc for the advice on the Wiklund CDs. I think I'll get the Caprice recording, which includes the symphonic poem Night Tide and Sunrise (I think that's the title). I"ll skip the Hyperion CD, since the Konzerstuck is also on a Sterling CD with works by Ludvig Norman and Ture Rangstrom.

kyjo:  Actual title of the work is Summer Night and Sunrise.  Regardless, it is a beautiful piece and, as you conclude, makes the Caprice disc that much more desirable.

[kyjo]

I can't believe I forgot Marx, one of my favorite unsungs! Absolutely gorgeously orchestrated music for when you feel like a good wallow (but it's more than that).As to the Wiklund symphonic poem, I must have been thinking of  particular Sibelius symphonic poem... . I'll definitely put the Caprice CD on my want list! Thank you very much for your recommendations and comments,guys. I never expected my first experience starting a thread to get so many wonderful replies .

[JimL]

A minor quibble.  The Alnæs concerto is in D Major.  You probably got the key confused with its Hyperion disc-mate, the Sinding concerto in D-flat.  And the finale of Scharwenka PC 1 is Rachmaninoff before Rachmaninoff was Rachmaninoff.  Also, Rachmaninoff's prodigious technique is a direct pedagogical descendant of Henselt (through Nikolai Zverev) and several passages in the Henselt F minor concerto are direct precursors to Rachmaninoff (although not necessarily the concertos).  I also find much in Anton Rubinstein to presage Rachmaninoff, particularly the coda of the first movement of PC 5.

[eschiss1]

Medtner 2 deserves some mention because of its dedication to Rachmaninoff at about the same time, I think, as Rachmaninoff's 4th concerto (in one of its versions) was being composed and dedicated to Medtner. If I have that anywhere near right. (Of the works Medtner dedicated to Rachmaninoff I prefer an earlier piano sonata - of one movement and about the same length. )  (It's also, I guess, the only one of Medtner's concertos arguably in more than one movement- though the 1st and 3rd are often subdivided into several, they're played without any sort of break and the 1st especially is a fairly self-contained form, iirc..., so while they all use some form of "cyclic technique" here the movements being recalled in the finale- nice touches, those- are actually from different movements.)

JimL- you remind me of a few questions- e.g. Rachmaninoff's musical training and background (not a question, as phrased) - hrm. Unlike of, e.g., Sibelius and some others of Russia and Scandinavia in that and earlier generations, did not study in Europe, it seems (when e.g. Tchaikovsky comes up I keep remembering the combination of his Russian and German musical background myself, for instance, maybe wrongly though...)

Related? .. Anyone know any piano concertos with (musical, more than inspirational) connections to other sides of Rachmaninoff's output (e.g. the three/four sonatas, the symphonies including but not limited to The Bells - not speaking of Holbrooke's The Bells or if so, only if it's musically related as well as Poe-facedly so..), - etc. ...?

[Christopher]

Another string where Roger Sacheverell Coke is mentioned with enthusiasm, and yet not one (as far as I can tell) piece of his music has ever been recorded. Not one!  Does anyone know why this is?  I am as keen as everyone else to hear his music!

[alberto]

[quote

Another string where Roger Sacheverell Coke is mentioned with enthusiasm, and yet not one (as far as I can tell) piece of his music has ever been recorded. Not one!  Does anyone know why this is?  I am as keen as everyone else to hear his music!

Howe link=topic=3621.msg39049#msg39049 date=1344172042]

I would put into the list the Piano Concerto by Lao (Stanislao) Silesu...There is a decent "Inedita" Cd.

...with a dreadful-sounding orchestra!
You are right, but it would be very unlikely to have another recording (or even a broadcast).
[/quote]