Possible coupling for Piano Concerto By Franz Berwald

[FBerwald]

I was wondering if Franz Berwald's gorgeous Piano Concerto were to be recorded [again! ] what might a good coupling be to fill a CD. Note - It doesn't have to be Swedish. Do we have many unrecorded Romantic Scandinavian Piano Concertos?

[eschiss1]

Borgstrøm's in C, Söderman's 2? (according to http://piano-concertos.org/s.html; I can't find any recordings), Ernst Mielck's concerto (if indeed he wrote a concerto besides his concert piece), Haarklou's (1917, D minor), Gustav Helsted's (if the orchestration and not just the reduction still exists )... for example. I have no off-air recordings of these but have seen the score of the Borgström (it's at IMSLP) iirc.

[Ilja]

If you want something roughly contemporary, the Tellefsen concertos (though both recorded on Simax)


If not, one might consider one of Halfdan Cleve's concertos, which although recorded in the past (and deep past in some cases) are not available at the moment.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I didn't know Helsted wrote a piano concerto. Well, well - you learn something new every day.
If one could locate the Soderman concertos they would probably be ideal.

[Ilja]

I didn't know Helsted wrote a piano concerto. Well, well - you learn something new every day.

Not sure that he did. Are you sure, Eric? I've never heard of such a work even though his opus list isn't very long. Can't vouch for Helsted père, though.

[eschiss1]

I -think- I wrote down over in a wishlist @ IMSLP that Danish Library (DKB, Royal Koniglich.. etc) has the reduction in manuscript of a Gustav Helsted piano concerto listed in their catalog. I'll check again. I may have been confused also. If it was a Carl Helsted piano concerto, that works for me too. Of course, I _hope_ there's an orchestrated version around somewhere or other...

(I notice that at least some of Gustav Helsted's string concertos are on YouTube. Are those broadcasts or recordings, hrm... ah. The cello concerto Op.35 is on Danacord in a 2000 recording along with other interesting-looking-stuff. I should try to get a listen to that. And the violin concerto is in the "26 Danish violin concertos." set... Yay! Sorry sorry...) (Brief tangent: a few Helsted things @ DKB are downloadable that I hadn't noticed- e.g. the organ sonata in D op.29 and the string trio Op.17...)

[eschiss1]

Looking over the DKB entry - permanent link - it's just a 5 page sketch. (They have a _lot_ of works by Gustav Helsted, just as, if one knows how to search, their catalog lists many dozens of works in manuscript by other lesser-known Danish composers, including just for example very many otherwise unavailable string quartets and other chamber works by a fellow with the last name Sick... but the piano concerto by Helsted, if it really exists, is not @ DKB as I thought. Sorry!...)

[Ilja]

That's probably Theodor Bernhard Sick (1827-1893), a military officer that also published a prolific amount of Lieder and chamber music.

[eschiss1]

Yes, I'm intrigued by the little music of his I've seen (a little of which is on YouTube) and even more by all those quartets and other works in manuscript of his that's not digitized and that I don't know in the least, and just stuck the name in there, sorry!

[edurban]

This topic sent me back to listen to the Berwald again.  What a lovely piece!  Thanks for the reminder of beauty in these dark times.    David

[Alan Howe]

I've moved the posts about Berwald's PC (rather than about suggested couplings) to this new thread:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,7775.msg80667.html#msg80667