Draeseke & Jadassohn PCs

[JimL]

Well, I got the CD a couple of days ago, and I've listened to all 3 works more than once.  So far, my favorite seems to be Jadassohn 2.  I'm starting to warm up to Jadassohn 1.  Oddly, it seems to bear the same kind of relationship to its immediate successor as Goetz' two concertos bear to each other: the first in a very unorthodox one-movement form, the second in a more traditional framework.  The Draeseke, considering the advance hype, I find slightly disappointing, although maybe that's not the word.  It just strikes me as so damned earnest that it seems to end up ultimately rather perfunctory, like he's just going through the motions of a "happy piano concerto".  Maybe it's all those dotted notes in the first movement.  Even Steven B. thought it was a little over the top.  Does it seem like that to anyone else, or is it just Steve and me?

[Alan Howe]

Draeseke's PC is definitely way over the top. But I find it memorable - and I just love the slow movement, epecially the gentle opening and close.

[JimL]

Well, I do have to admit the secondary theme in the first movement has started to grow on me.  I definitely need to listen to it some more.  But that obsessive dotted-note rhythm is just so - annoying.  That's the word I was looking for!