Ernst Linko's Third Piano Concerto

[tpaloj]

To celebrate the day of Finnish music (8th of December, the birthday of Sibelius) this year, I wanted to present a reproduction of the Finnish pianist-composer Ernst Linko's (1889–1960) unrecorded Third Piano Concerto "Tavastia". The composer performed it in public several times in the 1930-40s, but so far it hasn't yet been "discovered" by modern day pianists.

Composed in 1931, this jaunty and colorful concerto is stylistically conservative for its time, and should be ok for the forum's remit. Linko became more and more conservative in his musical language with each successive piano concerto that he wrote. Classical, romantic and even baroque idioms are readily apparent in this work and in Linko's last, 4th concerto, which dates from 1957.

https://youtu.be/iJ0efzRavj8

The solo part in this, by the way, is very difficult. Tons of fast and precise passagework, but it would be a lot of fun to hear being played. I especially love the exquisitely romantic and wistful middle movement, which works in good contrast to the more active outer movements.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, Tuomas, for this unusual, but delightful discovery. And what a great job you've made of the rendition - the piano really sparkles without sounding too 'tinny'.

[Reverie]

A wonerful effort!

It's very fesh and vibrant. (That's a hell of a lot of piano notes to input too!)

Interesting that Linko and Sibelius died very close to each other (within 3 years) But Sibelius lived about 25 years longer.

As well as the slow movement I love the ending very much from 18-45, it's Rachmaninoff and then whisping away beautifully to nothing.

Thank you very much.

[Mark Thomas]

What a lovely piece of music, and so convincingly realised. Thanks very much, Tuomas.

[dhibbard]

Thank you!!

[tpaloj]

Thanks! Linko's compositions are pretty much forgotten in Finland and everywhere else. It really was a pleasure to transcribe and study this optimistic and positive music of his.

For copyright reasons, I cannot make a typeset score of this. But Linko's autograph scans of this (and his other concertos) can be bought on the MCF site. There's a full score and a piano reduction in black-and-white scans. Their full score scan is terrible, though, horribly faint in some places so that some notes, dynamics and other markings were too faded to read unfortunately. The solo part in the piano reduction also differs in many passages between the full score's solo part for some reason – but it's a good quality scan, at least.

And what a great job you've made of the rendition - the piano really sparkles without sounding too 'tinny'.

Thank you, I agree that the Noteperformer piano sounds pretty good! There's a problem with bass passages sometimes sounding too low in volume, but overall it feels like a very fine soundfont to me.

It's very fresh and vibrant. (That's a hell of a lot of piano notes to input too!)

I inputted about 2/3rds of this work last year, but only finished it now. Still, it's a lot all together! Piano concerti can be some of the most tedious to typeset, thanks to complicated piano writing that can take a lot of time, even if the orchestral parts are often simpler in comparison to symphonic works. There are much fewer unrecorded unsung piano concertos than symphonies out there, thankfully.

[Alan Howe]

Your work on compositions such as this is greatly appreciated - a real tonic at this time of the year!

[semloh]

Yes, my wholehearted thanks too, Tuomas. Great stuff!