Classical music, part I

I’ve often posted some not very well known classical pieces/composers in my ‘Promoting the unknown‘-series (in some cases though, the music in those posts has been well known, however the specific interpretations have not). I’ve started thinking that since quite a few of my readers (as well as ‘googlers’) probably know very little (/about) classical music, it might also be a good idea to introduce you (them) to some of the more well-known ‘mainstream’ stuff, as what is ‘well-known’ stuff for a guy like me might not be for you guys. I’ve therefore decided to start a new series of posts that will try to deliver some of the really good stuff, whether it’s well known or not. This post would probably also be a great link to have at hand when you (again) meet people who openly state that they think that ‘classical music is a little bit boring, isn’t it‘?

This post, and presumably the posts that are to follow, are best read/watched/listened to when you have an hour or more to spare. If you don’t at the moment, you can either stop reading right now and come back to this post when you do, or (to those who haven’t stopped reading…) select a sample or two from the pieces below and let that suffice for now. This post contains 3-4 hours worth of wonderful music, so do come back if you can’t manage it all in one go and/or haven’t heard any of this stuff before.

If you listen to a piece with more than one part, it might be a good idea to let the next part of the piece buffer while you’re listening to what is soon to become the previous part, that way you avoid to have to stop listening for more than a few seconds at most when switching from part to part. As you might imagine, there’s a lot of ground to cover: I’ve decided that the first part in this series is to cover nothing but a few of the best (in some cases: excerpts from) piano concertos. I’ve tried to pick from a wide range of musicians, but of course a lot of composers (and a lot of pieces) didn’t make the ‘list’. When possible, I’ve posted ‘live videos’ where you can see the musicians play, however in some cases I decided that no such youtube recordings were good enough for me to post them here; in these cases I’ve posted ‘pure music videos’ without any visual aspects.

Any comments, both about the desirability of me undertaking this endeavour on this blog in the first place, as well as more general remarks, are of course most welcome; post in Danish if you wish.

Ok, here goes…

Chopin’s 1st piano concerto, 2. mvt.:

-ll- 2. piano concerto, 2. mvt. (yes, I like the 2. movements of his piano concertos, but the reason why I haven’t posted the first movement of this piece is solely because I’ve been unable to find a decent version of this piece on youtube. I own a wonderful version by Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Valery Gergiev, but I don’t find it worth the hassle/risk to put it up online):

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Grieg’s Piano Concerto, op. 16 (I have to add here that Dinu Lipatti’s version of this piece – here are links to part 2, part 3, part 4 – is godly and far superior to this one. This is one of the cases of ‘choose the version with both audio and visual over the audio only version’. If you don’t care about the visual, don’t even bother with the interpretation below, just go right ahead and listen to Lipatti’s version, it’s by far the best interpretation of this piece I’ve ever heard, and it’s surely one of the reasons why he’s widely considered one of the finest pianists of the 20th century):

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Rachmaninoff’s 2. piano concerto:

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Beethoven, 5th piano concerto (Emperor concerto – I like Brendel better, but this is still very good and Brendel’s recording of this is not on youtube, as far as I’ve been able to ascertain):

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The first half of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto no. 1 (as is the case with all other embedded you-tube videos: If you want to hear ‘related stuff’, or in this case just the rest of the concerto, just (double?)click the youtube-icons below to go to youtube and follow the appropriate links. I find the first two movement to be far the ‘strongest’ re. this piece:

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Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto:

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Liszt’ 2. piano concerto:

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Mozart’s piano concerto no. 21:

Promoting the unknown, a continuing series

One of my birthday presents I got earlier this month was Beethoven’s Complete Piano Concertos, played by Brendel and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In my opinion, Brendel was (he announced his retirement last year and is no longer active as a concert pianist) one of the finest interpreters of Beethoven’s music.

The latest project

I’m currently working on a Beethoven sonata, or at least part of it, opus 110, 3.rd movement, 1.st part (I might take on the fuga later).

I couldn’t find a reasonably good interpretation on youtube, so I’ll just throw you guys Glenn Gould’s interpretation. If nothing else, at least it’s unique…

My favourite interpretation of the piece, and the one I use when working on it, is that of Mitsuko Uchida. This piece can be so beautiful if played correctly. I think Gould’s complete disregard for the notation (there was a reason why the old man added a ‘ma non troppo’ to the ‘adagio’ part, dammit!) in the recording above is annoying, and I dont find his arioso dolente (second part) convincing at all. However, I know that the opinions are divided on the subject of GG and his sometimes rather off-beat interpretations.

Pathetique

Jeg gider ikke rigtig blogge for alvor lige for tiden, så mindre må gøre det:

Det er ikke normalt at grave-delen gentages, som han gør det i videoen, og jeg mener det er ukorrekt at gøre det – afsnittet er en indledning til satsen, ikke mere. Derudover ved jeg ikke om der er så meget at komme efter, jeg kan ikke lide den måde han betoner fraseringerne i allegroens anden gennemspilning, det er som om tempoet på et tidspunkt (omkring takt 60) bliver en lille smule ujævnt pga. ‘opholdene’ ved de dybe toner (det er bevidst fra hans side, men jeg bryder mig ikke om det) – men det være sagt, jeg kan naturligvis ikke gøre det nær så godt selv, selvom jeg har en ret god ide om, hvordan det ‘bør’ lyde. Hvis du er i tvivl om, hvorfor den stopper så abrupt: De sidste 25 sekunder eller så er ikke med – tough luck, jeg hørte faktisk ikke stykket helt til ende før jeg uploadede. Beklager. Der skal dog nok være en anden version tilgængelig på youtube, hvis man er meget nysgerrig og ikke har hørt den før.

Det er et dejligt stykke – jeg tog det frem omkring jul, efter det havde ligget på is et års tid eller så. Håber jeg kan blive færdig med det og komme i gang med tredje sats i løbet af foråret, 2. satsen var naturligvis den første jeg stiftede bekendtskab med.