Tellefsen Piano Concertos with Howard Shelley

[pianoconcerto]

In today's new release email from Hyperion, there's a thumbnail of a forthcoming CD of the two Tellefsen piano concertos played by Howard Shelley.  Also on that CD will be a work by Kalkbrenner, but I can't make out the title.  Perhaps someone else can figure it out.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Re. the Kalkbrenner work. Annoying, isn't it? Neither can I. Good news about the Tellefsen. I suppose the connection is that Tellefsen studied with Kalkbrenner for a short time in Paris while waiting for an introduction to Chopin who subsequently became his tutor and close friend.

[4candles]

Can you share the image here, in case anyone else can decipher?

[Gareth Vaughan]

I've deciphered it. It appears to be the Grande Marche, Orage & Polonaise for Piano Quintet, Op.93.

[Martin Eastick]

Although the Tellefsen concertos have been recorded before (Simax - with Steen-Nøkleberg), I'm sure Howard will once again do what he does so well with these - and certainly breathe new life into them! The added bonus of the Kalkbrenner "curio", although not for piano and orchestra as such, will surely be the icing on the cake! I do know that although there are still several other Kalkbrenner works for piano and orchestra as yet to be recorded, it is again the availablity of orchestral parts that is the ever-present problem. I will take the opportunity here though, in case anyone out there is interested, to mention that I have recently acquired a full set of parts - including solo, for his Op66 "Gage d'Amitié", Introduction & Rondo Brillant (dedicated to Moscheles)! In any case, I'm really looking forward to this release...... 

[Gareth Vaughan]

That is great news, Martin. Hyperion could easily fill another CD (probably 2, if they were interested) of Kalkbrenner's music for piano and orchestra. The parts for a few as yet unrecorded works of his in this genre are available, according to WorldCat at various European libraries. I don't suppose you, or anyone else, happen to know where the parts are for the Concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra, Op. 125 (or is it Op. 123? I forget). It does look as if Hyperion is continuing "business as usual" - at least, so far.

[Martin Eastick]

Gareth, I do have a complete set of parts - including both piano parts - for Kalkbrenner's concerto for 2 pianos, which is Op125. I have had these for some time and was trying to interest Mike Spring in getting the work recorded. However, he seemed quite reticent about doing it, and the first obstacle was to find an appropriate coupling! Also the logistics of having two pianos prepared for the sessions seemed to be quite problematic, and would have incurred considerable extra expense. Then, of course, there is the problem of finding a piano duo willing to take it on.......

Perhaps things may be different now, and i would be only to happy to make the scores available if required. As to coupling, and knowing that Hyperion have in the past been flexible in allowing non-orchestral works to be used as fillers in the series, there is a Grand Duo Op128 for 2 pianos which could be used, but a third work would almost certainly need to be found as Op125 + Op128 would probably give rather short measure! As far as i am aware, these are the only Kalkbrenner works for 2 pianos, rather than one piano, four hands, of which there are quite a few!

[Gareth Vaughan]

Ferdinand Thieriot wrote a concerto for 2 pianos and Walter Zielke, who has produced editions of some of Thieriot's works, told me about 10 years ago that he knew where the orchestral material was, but he wouldn't divulge that information.
Then there is a set of variations, I think, composed jointly by Moscheles and Mendelssohn, for 2 pianos and orchestra, but I have not been able to locate the orchestral parts (same old story).
As to finding a pianistic duo to perform the work(s), I would think Simon Callaghan and Hiroake Takenouchi, who often play together, would be up for it.

[4candles]

Very incidentally, and just on reading Martin's last comment re the inclusion of non-orchestral works as fillers, I thought I would mention the Concertino Militaire for two pianos by Tellefsen's contemporary Amédée Méreaux (1802-1874).

This Concertino came as a surprise addendum to the manuscript of the composer's Grand concerto symphonique (solo reduction), the existence of which I'd known about for several years but only committed to ordering from the BnF Paris within the last handful.

Both above works are now on Méreaux's composer page at IMSLP if anyone here is interested in taking a closer look.

4c

[Alan Howe]

<<Howard Shelley has teamed up with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra to record an eighty-sixth volume in our glorious Romantic Piano Concerto series: Piano Concertos by Tellefsen & Kalkbrenner, or—more strictly—the two concertos by the magnificently named Thomas Dyke Acland Tellefsen, originally of Norway, and the equally magnificently named Grande Marche interrompue par Un Orage et suivie d'une Polonaise by his fellow Parisian Friedrich Kalkbrenner. Tellefsen's works date from the middle decade of the nineteenth century, a soundworld grounded in the works of his beloved Chopin but not ashamed to sprinkle sequins chipped from the workbench of his sometime teacher Kalkbrenner.>>
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/ym.asp?ym=2024_01  (includes audio excerpt from the finale of Tellefsen's PC2 - click on link in text: 'Piano Concertos by Tellefsen & Kalkbrenner')

[eschiss1]

Thanks for pointing out that the Méreaux score says Concertino, btw. Corrected/moved the page and retagged it

[FBerwald]

sound samples of all the movements - RPC Vol, 86 - Tellefsen & Kalkbrenner: Piano Concertos
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68345