New Recording of Korngold's Piano Concerto in C#

[brendangcarroll]

For release in March 2021 on the Bridge label. A most welcome release for this rarely recorded work!

https://www.europadisc.co.uk/classical/150455/Piano_Protagonists:_Music_for_Piano_and_Orchestra_by_Rimsky-Korskaov,_Chopin_and_Korngold.htm

[FBerwald]

What an odd coupling. What does Chopin, Rimsky-Korsakov and Korngold have in common, I wonder. Besides Korngold is on the fringes of the forum spectrum. I've come to blows with admins here in the past reg. what's romantic and what's not. Despite being included in the Hyperion RPC, this work is a very odd duck.

[brendangcarroll]

I thought the key word in this forum was 'unsung' and not 'romantic'.  Alan will correct me...if I am wrong.

Works written in the romantic vein from the first half of the 20th Century by other composers are welcomed and discussed here - from Gal to Franz Schmidt, with Egon Kornauth and Franx Schreker and many others.

If you consider Korngold's remarkable concerto an 'odd duck' (not a musicalogical term with which I am overly familiar) you are of course entitled to your opinion. But that is not a valid reason for the piece receiving a welcome recording, to be ignored or expunged from these lists.

As for the connection between the 3 work on the disc, there is none except that ALL were performed by these forces at various BARD festivals in the last few years.

[Alan Howe]

I thought the key word in this forum was 'unsung' and not 'romantic'.  Alan will correct me...if I am wrong.

The key words in this forum are to be found in our Guidelines:
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,3681.0.html

'odd duck'

Evidently a familiar phrase to some of us:
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Odd%20Duck

not a musicalogical term with which I am overly familiar

Not a spelling I'm familiar with either! 

Speaking purely personally, I won't be buying this new release - it'd be pure duplication. But if people haven't already got these pieces in their collection...

[Revilod]

 The connection between them? All three protagonised the piano?!

[Gareth Vaughan]

It looks an interesting disk. I don't think I will buy it, but that is only because I already have good versions of all three works and, in the case of Korngold, two different ones. But I am always pleased to see multiple recordings becoming available of relatively (at least in the case of the Rimsky-Korsakov and Korngold concertos) unsung repertoire.

[TerraEpon]

I could actually see R-K and Korngold coupled given they are both single-movement concerti...and both in C# for that matter (though granted different modes).

Adding Chopin to the mix kinda makes it a 'this is what the pianist wanted to record' type of disc...

[eschiss1]

from that point of view it would have made more sense to add a (more popular) one-movement concerto in D-flat major composed by Sergei Prokofiev than the (even more popular) Chopin... (or perhaps Emanuel Moór's one-movement concerto Op.57 in D-flat.)

[Gareth Vaughan]

The Chopin Variations do seem oddly out of place.

[ewk]

I agree that it's a bit of an odd coupling. However, still pleased to see the Korngold (and R-K) recorded again. Every recording improves the chances that the works become better-known.

I have always found the Korngold concerto interesting, but at the same time also a little strange – do others agree that it seems surprisingly modernist or less pleasing the ear compared to K's other works from this period? It does not make the work less good or less genius, but this has always struck me since I first bought the Chandos CD in my teens.

As a side question, has anyone ever had the chance to hear the R-K or Korngold live? Probably an even rarer occasion than a recording. If yes, how did the public react (esp. for the Korngold, given my thoughts above)?

Best wishes,
ewk

[Alan Howe]

I find the Korngold a rather schizoprenic work, with modernist elements I dislike, but that's just my view.

[Alan Howe]

I still don't like it - it doesn't seem to me to 'add up'. But, as I said, that's just my view.

As far as the 2nd Viennese School is concerned, there are works that I (sort of) like and certainly admire, e.g. Berg's Violin Concerto, works that fascinate, but I just don't get because the language is so alien, and works that positively repel me. And overall, I think it was an aberration because tonality is where music's really at...

However, that's a debate for another day, on another forum. And with that, back to Korngold's PC.

[brendangcarroll]

I have heard Korngold's Piano Concerto "live" twice, both in Manchester.

The first was at the old BBC Studios in Oxford Road before an invited audience. That marked its UK premiere in 1985, a performance I arranged. The second was in 1987 at the Free Trade Hall with the Halle. The soloist on both occasions was the fabulous Gary Graffmann who was superb. The audience went wild after each performance. The conductor at the BBC was Georg Lehel and Korngold's son George attended the rehearsals and actually produced the broadcast gratis. The conductor at the Free Trade Hall was Sir Edward Downes, a big Korngold fan.

As for its 'modernist' aspects, this work was a natural development of Korngold's style after Die tote Stadt, that had already flirted with bitonality in the lush slow movement of his first string quartet (the preceding opus).

I think it also reflected his response to Wittgenstein's tragic disablity. Graffmann memorably described the concerto as a 'keyboard Salome'

I would add that one can never have too many recordings of a work, especially one as rarely performed as this. Each will reveal something new.

[Alan Howe]

I would add that one can never have too many recordings of a work

Really? Fancy another 1812 Overture? Not me!

Of course, if it's unsung, further recordings are always welcome, although there are so many unrecorded masterpieces waiting to be done, I'd rather have them. Example: Berger Symphony No. 2 or another Kormgold PC? I know which I'd choose.

[brendangcarroll]

Of course, I was not referring to standard repertory or the orchestral warhorses.............