A concerto with no name

[Alan Howe]

The logo seems to read: 

   A. L. No.6
Printed in England                 

The image is that of a large galleon-type boat.                   

[eschiss1]

Lengnick, or somesuch?...

[matesic]

So almost certainly English then? The style (I cheated by entering the first page into Finale Printmusic for its playback function) seems quite powerfully Rachmaninovian and makes me want to hear more! In overall appearance the ms is quite similar to one I have scans of, a cello concerto from 1908 by Percy Hilder Miles (1878-1922), but he didn't write a piano concerto. Sadly I suspect this is an unpublished and maybe even unperformed piece that no-one will ever be able to identify.

By the way, if this is from Thal's "most recent pile of old stuff", I'd be interested to learn if he (or anyone else) has picked up any manuscript music for strings or strings with piano that apparently hasn't been recorded. I'm always keen to submit these things to what you might call "extraordinary rendition".

[thalbergmad]

I have a manuscript for banjo and piano if that helps. I was looking to do the World Premier myself though.

Thal

[matesic]

I'm happy to leave that to your picking fingers

[thalbergmad]

http://www.mediafire.com/view/89wh2yyhd5d6h7b/Thal's_Mystery_Concerto.pdf

To aid the identification, here is the entire work, or what there is of it.

With thanks to my Mustek scanner and with kind permission of Mark Thomas.

Concertingly.

Thal

[matesic]

After all that meticulous transcription, he just stops writing about 10 minutes into the finale! I'll see about creating a few audible samples (stop me if you've already done or are doing this!)

[thalbergmad]

Please continue Sir. I know not how to do that.

[BerlinExpat]

My piano teacher friend reckons it's D minor and listening to the first page it sounds Rachmanovian or even Scriabinian!!! Suggestions have I plenty, solutions have I none!

[matesic]

Here are some short synthesised clips of each movement

http://www.mediafire.com/listen/db116k6ad81n1l2/Thals_mystery_PC.MP3

To my ears, late romantic and highly chromatic (so probably before c.1920?) but with clear references to Brahms's second concerto in the "orchestral" theme of the first movement and the rhythm of the third. Could he (or she) have been a Stanford pupil?

[thalbergmad]

Extremely kind of you Sir. I don't know how you do this but it is much appreciated.

Regards

Thal

[matesic]

No big trick, once you've got your head round the note-processing software. Finale Printmusic (good for relatively simple scores) costs about £80 and its piano playback sound is quite convincing, other instruments unfortunately less so.