Piano concerto in France during romantic period

[Claude Torres]

For people who can read french, this book describes the evolution of the piano concerto in France between the arrival of Chopin (circa 1830) and the end of first world war.



Le concerto pour piano français à l'épreuve des modernités
Alexandre Dratwicki, book Director
Actes Sud Beaux Arts / Palazzetto Bru Zane
ISBN 978-2-330-05336-9
September, 2015 / 432 pp.

Beginning : http://www.bru-zane.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ouvrage-concerto-pour-piano.pdf
C.Y.T.

[Alan Howe]

How fascinating. Is there a contents page available anywhere?

[Claude Torres]

I have sent a mail to Actes Sud to get the table of contents.
Meanwhile this is the back cover text

1904 : en plein conflit entre modernité et académisme, éclate à Paris la « Guerre du concerto ». Elle opposa les défenseurs de ce genre à des détracteurs déterminés à le siffler en public. Au-delà de l'anecdote - un véritable procès relaté par la presse parisienne -, c'est la condamnation de la virtuosité romantique qu'il faut lire à travers ce geste excessif. Cet ouvrage collectif retrace l'évolution du concerto pour piano en France entre l'arrivée de Chopin (vers 1830) et la Première Guerre mondiale. Il rappelle d'abord l'influence des compositions germaniques de Beethoven, Mendelssohn ou Schumann sur l'esprit français des années 1850. Ce sont ensuite trois types d'acclimatation du genre dans les concerts qui sont étudiés : les grandes sociétés parisiennes (dont Colonne, Lamoureux et Pasdeloup), une société philharmonique de Province et les concerts belges. Un dernier ensemble de textes se concentre sur diverses options adoptées par les compositeurs au tournant des XIXe et XXe siècles : de l'académisme de Massenet à l'exotisme de Saint-Saëns, pour aboutir à la modernité de Fauré et Debussy.


Another excerpt pp. 225-249 (Saint-Saëns-Massenet)
http://jonforshee.org/jonforshee/Pages de Concerto_pour_piano_francais_ep1_10-7 PASLER.pdf

[Alan Howe]

Thanks. Yes, I saw that.

[giles.enders]

Has anyone ordered this book? I might be tempted if it was as comprehensive as Chris Fifield's book on German symphonies.

[chill319]

Yes, what happened between Saint-Saens' 1875 Concerto 4 and his 1896 Concerto 5 (besides Franck)?
For one thing, Debussy's marvelous Fantasie, which has grown on me lately. I know _of_ Lalo's brief contribution, but haven't heard it. Anyone have any favorites from this period?

[eschiss1]

Between 1875 and 1896?
Maybe (not sure of composition dates of these, but guessing; and some are not "concertos" in name; and for starters...)
Émile Bernard, piano concertstück, Op.40 (published 1892);
Sylvio Lazzari, concertstück Op.18 (1887/1894);
Georges Pfeiffer, piano concerto no.3 op.86 (pub.1883)
Marie Jaëll piano concerto no.1 (1877), no.2 (1884) (from marie-jaell.info)

[Revilod]

Another interesting book on this subject is Michael Stegemann's "Camille Saint-Saens and the French Solo Concerto from 1850-1920" (Amadeus Press: 1991). The book is centred on Saint-Saens's concertante music, of course, but mentions and briefly discusses countless other composers and their works. For example, Stegemann quotes Stengel on Pfeiffer's Third Concerto:

"another one-sided virtuoso composer was Georges Pfeiffer as illustrated in his Third Concerto".

Stegemann adds, "A look through the score fully confirms this judgement. The concerto's disproportionate passage work entwines itself
around scanty thematic material, which is essentially based on a simple triadic melody".

So this old problem still persisted as late as 1883 and in France as in Germany.

[eschiss1]

As to any specific composer I'd suppose we'd want to make that judgement for ourselves rather than rely on it second- or third-hand, though in general, of course it did (what was it that someone said of French composers as against German, at a later date and of probably better composers- some contrast of deeply superficial as against superficially deep?)

[Gareth Vaughan]

A few more that come to mind to add to Eric's "starters" are:
Ernest Guiraud: Allegro de Concert, 1885
Gabriel Pierne: Fantaisie-Ballet, 1885; Concerto in C minor 1887
and, of course, Widor's 1st PC dates from 1876.
I think Victor Duvernoy might have written something in this period too, but not sure about that. The PC by Lalo has already been mentioned - it is one of my favourites.

[jdperdrix]

French piano concertos from 1875 to 1896?
Théodore Dubois, Piano concerto n° 1 (1875)
César Franck, Variations symphoniques (1885), Les Djinns (1884)
Charles Gounod, Works for pedal piano : Concerto (1889), Suite concertante (1888) and smaller pieces
Benjamin  Godard, Piano concertos n°1 (1875) and n° 2 (1893) and smaller pieces
Vincent d'Indy, Symphonie Cévenole (1886)
Edouard Lalo, Piano concerto (1888-89)
Gabriel Pierné, Piano concerto (1887) and smaller pieces
Charles-Marie Widor, Piano concerto n° 1 (1876), Fantaisie (1889)
For all of them, CD's are available.

[eschiss1]

There are, of course, possibly-interesting examples outside that 1875-96 time frame, e.g. Broustet's symphonie concertante (pub.1872) and perhaps Prudent's concertos (1850s) also.

If Belgian Franck counts, then does Monaguese Abbiate (Op.96 "Italian")?

[Aramiarz]

Maybe Diémer piano concerstücke?

[Ebubu]

Don't forget the wonderful Reynaldo HAHN Concerto (which you can now find, coupled with the MASSENET Concerto in the Hyperion Romantic Piano Concerto series.  Even though it was written in 1930, its inspiration remains very much that of the late romantics, in the vein of Pierné and Fauré.

[FBerwald]

I have been wondering about the  Diémer concerto for quite some time. has it survived? If so does anyone here know the quality of music?