Boris Papandopulo (1906-1991) Violin Concerto

[Alan Howe]

Well, I thought, there's no way Boris Papandopulo's Violin Concerto of 1943 fits in here, but it absolutely does. I took a punt on the recent cpo recording...
https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/cpo/detail/-/art/boris-papandopulo-klavierkonzert-nr-3/hnum/5892046
...and was absolutely amazed. It's a 46-minute, three-movement, resolutely tonal, gorgeously melodic, and highly coloured work of an almost Kongoldian magnificence.

Has anyone else encountered this wonderful piece? My VC discovery of the year!

[eschiss1]

I don't think I have. I see two works of his are in our "download archive" including a different concerto, and he's been mentioned here a few times (including by someone as a "mediocre Croatian Jewish composer" - say what? brrrr. Irrelevant much?)

[M. Yaskovsky]

Yes I've bought this release. I found it stunning, Papandopulo is able to mix 10 different styles (jazz, late romanticism, neo classism) in one work but it never sounds patchy. I can recommend his 2nd piano concerto too; it has a wonderful central Ravelian movement. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Papandopulo-Concerto-Triendl-Soloists-777829-2/dp/B00L5TEMFE/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1513859210&sr=1-2&keywords=papandopulo

[Alan Howe]

There's no jazz or neo-classicism in his VC, though, which is a fully late-romantic work. The PCs sound rather different - and beyond the remit of UC.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I agree. The PCs (or at least No. 2 which is the only one I have heard in its entirety), though agreeable and interesting in their own right do not have, for me, the same attraction as the excerpts from the VC would seem to indicate that that work possesses to my ears. I wonder if his 1st PC is more in tune stylistically with the remit of this forum.

[Revilod]

I  know the Violin Concerto, though not well as yet. A very confidently written and colourful work but a little too rhapsodic for my taste and I'm not  sure there's enough music in the first movement to justify its length of 24 1/2 minutes. I probably need to listen to it several more times. I may have been listening to too much Medtner lately! (How can Jeremy Nicholas,  in the current "Gramophone" call his piano concertos "rhapsodic" and complain of a "lack of memorable melodies"? It beats me!)

[Alan Howe]

Mr Nicholas is probably making mental comparisons with Rachmaninov. If he is, he'll be thinking that you might as well forget the rest of the repertoire. Which is very silly indeed.