Ludvig Norman: Piano Concerto

[Mark Thomas]

Huge thanks to britishcomposer for uploading the recording of the completion of Norman's Piano Concerto to our Downloads Board here. More details about the work, including movement tempi, are to be found at the Swedish Musical Heritage website here.

[Richard Moss]

Mark,

having followed your link, my understanding is that the first 2 movements were completed and it was only the 'finale' that remained to be completed (part was already scored, the rest in outline).  1) Is that a correct understanding and (2) does that imply the first 2 movements are performed just as Norman composed them??

He doesn't appear to have left us much orchestral work but I already know (and like) his symphonies, a few overtures and piano konzertstuck I already have so I'm really looking forward to enjoying his PC. 

Many thanks to BC for the upload.

Best wishes

Richard

[Mark Thomas]

Your guess is as good as mine, Richard, but that's those are the inferences I draw too.

[Mark Thomas]

It's a most enjoyable Schumannesque work - very much what one would expect from Norman in the 1840s. The dancing third movement, although lively enough, has perhaps the least individuality and Norman's inspiration falls below the level of the other two. Perhaps he sensed that and that's why he abandoned work on it? Pianist Johansson's completion of it seems to be idiomatic and, indeed, one wouldn't know that the orchestration is his.

[Alan Howe]

Very much of its time (1845-8) - yes, it's sort of like Schumann (rather than Mendelssohn), as one might expect from a budding young composer in his mid-teens who would leave to study with the man himself. Very nice indeed; not earth-shattering, but definitely well worth hearing. Thanks so much for uploading it. Well worth a commercial recording, I'd've thought.

Interestingly, Schumann's great PC was composed in 1845 and first performed in December of that year in Leipzig. According to Wikipedia, "Norman began his musical training with Lindblad and later studied at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1848 to 1852, where he also made the acquaintance of Robert Schumann."

[eschiss1]

For what it's worth, I think the Schumann concerto was composed over the period 1841-1845, and initially consisted of just the first movement, meant to be an independent work; but that doesn't change things much.

[Alan Howe]

The key question, I think, is whether Norman could have heard (or seen) any part of Schumann's PC before starting work on his own.

[eschiss1]

Does it remind one specifically of Schumann's piano concerto, or of Schumann's music, which it's possible he knew more generally? (If it's Schumann's handling of the orchestra, it was not his first performed work with a role for orchestra, either- consider the first symphony (premiered in March 1841- when Norman was 9...) and Paradies und der Peri (premiered 1843)...)

[Alan Howe]

Yes - that's a very good point, Eric. I wonder, though, whether it is significant that Norman seems to have ceased work on his PC at about the same time as he went to study under Schumann...