New Recording of Korngold's Piano Concerto in C#

[brendangcarroll]

Wittgenstein made no visits to the recording studios in his prime so consequently, we have no recordings of him playing any of the works he commissioned. There's a filmed fragment of him playing part of the Ravel concerto from Paris in 1933, a longer sound recording of the same work made in 1937 and some early piano rolls for the Hupfeld company, and that is about it.

He did make a few solo recordings in the late 1950s of operatic transcriptions and the Bach-Busoni Chaconne (which he did not commission, incidentally) but these were hardly circulated and are now almost impossible to find.

The fact that he never recorded the Korngold concerto is therefore not a reflection on the work, or indeed his opinion of it. It was not recorded by other pianists because Wittgenstein owned its exclusive copyright that forbade anyone from performing or recording it during his lifetime. He died in 1961. This copyright applied to all of his commissions incidentally, which is why the Prokofiev did not receive its world premiere until 1956 (after Wittgenstein finally relented, not ever having played the work himself, and allowed Siegried Rapp to perform it).

As for published research, there have been a number of scholarly dissertations about Wittgenstein and some of these I listed in the bibliography of my biography of Korngold.

A proper biography of the artist has yet to be written however. I am not sure that this forum is the correct place for a specific thread on the subject. It would be an immense challenge to bring detailed analysis to a survey of the many left hand works he commissioned.

[Alan Howe]

it not only was the first LH Concerto to be commissioned by Paul Wittgenstein in March 1922

Quite an honour, although his teacher Josef Labor had composed a Concert Piece in form of variations in D major in 1915 which Wittgenstein took up after he returned from WW1 during which he had lost his right arm (not a commission, obviously).

In fact, Labor - himself blind - seems to have been at least partially instrumental in Wittgenstein pursuing a career as a one-armed concert pianist:

Special mention must be made of the fact that Josef Labor's musical gift to the young amputee included a Konzertstück, a concert-piece, for piano solo with full symphony orchestra.  This was not a little sonatina for piano solo, not something that Paul Wittgenstein would play at home by himself, or in front of the family.  Josef Labor's gift was an unmistakable career-challenge.  And while it is possible that Paul Wittgenstein would have required no urging to continue with his piano playing, it is also possible that he would have chosen another direction for his life.
https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/58341/835.txt

Wikipedia in fact lists three Konzertstücks for the left hand composed by Labor (1915, 1916, 1923):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Labor

[Alan Howe]

And all yet to be committed to disc!

Quite. Yet another scandalously neglected composer.

And with that, back to Korngold's PC.

[brendangcarroll]

Well if we are going to discuss the history of compositions for the left hand alone, Josef Labor (while a great pioneer) was certainly not the progenitor of the genre.

The first ever LH Piano Concerto was composed in 1902 by Count Géza Zichy a pupil of Liszt who lost his right arm in a hunting accodent aged 15.  He composed a large number of works and was a formidable pianist. I suspect it was his example that gave Wittgenstein the confidence to pursue a career as a left handed pianist. Zichy died in 1924 but I have no idea if the two ever met.

I would also cite the famous Brahms arrangement of Bach's Chaconne in D minor and Scriabin's wonderful Prelude and Nocturne as highly significant works, both of which Wittgenstein mastered and performed in recitals.

Josef Labor was a great influence as teacher and as well as his pupil Julius Bittner, he was a very close friend of Franz Schmidt who composed SIX works for Wittgenstein, one of which includes a set of variations on a theme by Labor.

Vienna was a very small world.

[eschiss1]

The history of one-handed keyboard music without orchestra goes back centuries further, to one of Bach's sons, much earlier than Brahms. Anyway.

[Alan Howe]

Josef Labor (while a great pioneer) was certainly not the progenitor of the genre.

No, indeed not. It was his connection with Wittgenstein that interested me, not what had happened prior to that.

Anyway, let's return to the Korngold PC, shall we? Of the available recordings, which do members prefer?

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for that. I have Hamelin - superb pianism, as one might expect, but is he too ruthless? Some think he is in the Marx coupling...

[Alan Howe]

There are other (non-commercial) recordings too:
Gary Graffman/New York PO/Zubin Mehta (1985): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L0k0n-H2Vo
Artur Pizarro/Danish National SO/Andrew Manze (2014): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfelJcLYLuA

By the way, Steven de Groote's recording (cpo) appears to be well over five minutes longer than the other commercial recordings. Does this matter?

[brendangcarroll]

The de Groote recording was made following a concert in Berlin in 1983. I was at the concert with the composer's son George who told both de Groote and the conductor Gerd Albrecht that it was far too slow. Both would not be swayed and these slower tempi carried over to the Cpo recording conducted by Werner Andreas Albert a couple of years later.

The score is quite meticulous in its myriad instructions to the performers by Korngold (who did not trust conductors) and is like a road map of the Viennese 20th century style of that time. Korngold always preferred a forward, upbeat tempo. Taking a leisurely, more portentous approach and ignoring his markings saps the life from his music more than practically any other composer I know.

As a note for historians, the very first performance of this concerto in modern times (ie after Wittgenstein's death in 1961) was given in Vienna by Hans Kann in 1965. It was broadcast and I do have a tape of what was a very dull and lackustre perfromance.

For me, Gary Graffann's accounts (I have 3 separate performances on tape) have yet to be bettered.

Orion Weiss has a lot to live up to.....

[Alan Howe]

That's very helpful - thank you. So, in effect, we should probably rule out de Groote when considering which version to buy.

How do the remaining versions (apart from the yet-to-be-released Weiss) stack up, in your view?

[eschiss1]

is Graffman the US premiere?

[Alan Howe]

If you're referring to my YouTube link, then yes, it is.

[brendangcarroll]

The Shelley recording is somewhat lacklustre, not only because the soloist had injured his shoulder a week before recording and had not rehearsed enough - but because Bamert ( a difficult man to persuade) constantly slowed things down at the sectional transitions, thereby making the concerto very episodic.

The Stavy recording is marred by the very poor and muddy sound quality, especially for the orchestra. One of the glories of this work is the extraordinarily iridescent orchestration and some very unusual instrumental combinations and effects. Most of that is lost here. It is a little more faithful to the score as regards to tempi, dynamics and phrasing, but the soloist is not served well either, with many crucial details lost, especially in the lower register.

Which leaves us with Hamelin and Vanska. This is still the best respresentation of the concerto on a commercial recording - the best recorded, with some very fine orchestral playing and of course, Hamelin who is fearless in facing the technical challenges. He comes closest to obeying Korngold's markings, especially the frequent changes of metre (sometimes even mid bar) which make this work such a demanding roller-coaster ride. Vanska gives him his head and the results are exciting.

I wish Graffmann had made a commercial disc. Whenever I asked him about it, he demurred saying he needed to play it more in concert before he felt confident enough to commit himself. Now, he is 93 and apparently not in the best of health. He was due to give the Japanese premiere of the concerto in 2016 but had to cancel at the last minute. I doubt he will play it again and a CD is probably out of the question. A pity, because he really understands the piece better than anyone and even consulted the original manuscript in the Library of Congress to correct some errors in the printed score.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks for this detailed analysis, which is very helpful for non-expert listeners such as myself. I bought the Hamelin CD partly because of the Marx coupling, although some commentators have preferred David Lively's recording of the latter. However, it seems that, as far as the Korngold is concerned, Hamelin is king of the hill.

[FBerwald]

Alan, I belong to the crowd that prefers Lively's Marx purely for the unhurried interpretation. However you are right as far as Korngold is concerned; Hemalin is the best version available so far. Also (since I've just read all the posts here) I know this is a closed chapter but I'd like to apologize to @brendangcarroll since it was a small query from my end in response to his post that seems to have started about 3 pages of spirited discussion/debate. It was never my intention to criticize his choice and obvious love for this work, I was just wondering mainly about the coupling of works on the disc. I would have thought that the Korngold PC would have gone well with something like Bowen's 4th PC or something from that sound world, but then again the market is full of oddly matched repertoire

On a different note, Jorge Bolet's live performance recording of Marx's 1st is amazing; pity he never made a studio recording of it.