Repertoire: The BEST Dvořák Piano Concerto
Vložit
- čas přidán 2. 01. 2021
- Even Dvořák's admirers were singularly ill-equipped to understand his achievement in crafting a piano concerto that pays obvious homage to the great works in the medium by Mozart and Beethoven; but that's what Dvořák was up to. Recently, this lovely work has been gaining ground with a younger generation of soloists willing to listen to its manifold beauties with fresh ears. If you want to join in the party, here's your ticket to enjoyment.
- Hudba
I always appreciate your advocacy for the greatness of Dvorak. You are absolutely correct that non-German composers are to this day viewed condescendingly by many music theorists and musicologists-as I experienced first hand at an unnamed school of music. As you pointed out, Brahms recognized the greatness of Dvorak. I always like to say that the four last Dvorak symphonies are at least if not even better than the four Brahms. Of course they don’t have to be in competition. The point is that Dvorak is far too often viewed condescendingly, when in fact he is one of the greatest masters of the late 19th century-his form, orchestration, melodic gift, harmonic facility, emotional range, etc. are incredible. Thank you for this talk on the piano concerto. I had previously heard tried a few recordings, so this was very helpful.
I always enjoy your Dvorak videos. He's such a magnificent composer. His tunes are just wonderful.
Yes!!
I'd be hard-pressed to have to decide between Dvořák and Schubert as best tunesmith ever.
So nice to see someone draw attention to this neglected work! I've played it (twice, somehow) and sure, the piano part is a bit idiosyncratic, but I'm happy to trust that Dvořák knows what he's doing (and means what he does) and there's no denying it has a unique feel and effect. Plus, great tunes and all the rest, so what's not to love?
Dave, non seulement vous êtes un critique accompli, mais un musicologue hors pair ❗ De l'âge de 25 ans à 45 ans, j'ai été abonné à une revue de critique française "Diapason", mais maintenant c'est vous qui remplacez, dans mon cœur, cette revue, avec votre jovialité et bienveillance 👍. Gratitude 🙏
Merci beaucoup!
I give Dvorak full credit writing, for example, two of the finest symphonies of the Romantic era, nos. 7 & 8 and two of the finest symphonic poems, The Noonday Witch and the Water Goblin. Great composer by any standards.
I loooooooove this concerto. I think another reason for the piece’s unpopularity is the juxtaposition of the pianist and the orchestra (primarily in the first movement). Forgetting the “awkwardness” or difficulty it seems to me that the soloist isn’t put in a theatrical/protagonist light as was the case of most other Romantic concertos (and who cares!). But the thematic material is so freaking beautiful. The way he spins out such lovely melodies one after the other, builds tension in his structure (especially into the first movement recap!!!), creates texture by using the solo part in an additive fashion to the orchestra, I just love it...
What a wonderful video! For decades I've bypassed the Dvorak Piano Concerto. No more! I'm listening now and entranced! It's terrific for all the reasons you say. Thanks so much.
Which version are you listening to?
@@littlejohnuk The Firkusny-Neumann-Czech Phil recording recommended by Hurwitz. It's truly great!
@@jonbutler1563 I will check it out once I've got to know it with Primakov/Brown/Odense which is like the best champagne.
Excellent and compelling explanation of the work. Thank you for it. I love this sort of content of yours. Much appreciated.
I loved the Dvorak Piano Concerto the first time I heard it (which was not all that long ago) and I’m glad pianists and concert programmers are increasingly aware of the piece’s many virtues. The idiosyncrasies are why I enjoy it - it doesn’t really sound like any other piano concerto I’m aware of, although if it does sound like anyone, Mozart would be the guy much more than Brahms. I imprinted on the Richter recording which is enchanting, right on the heels of listening to Richter’s recording of the equally lovely Rimsky-Korsakov Concerto. I’ll give the Naxos/Wit/Jandó disc a listen, since the clip was very well done and I really dig The Water Goblin.
Truly my favorite piano concerto.
Edit: Truly my favorite piano concerto IN THE MAINSTREAM REPERTOIRE. I wish I had with whom to share my love and enthusiasm for Moscheles’ seventh piano concerto...
am heading to the Moscheles asap, thanks for the recommendation
This is great ❤
Thank you so much for the hard work 😊
Nobody talks about this concerto 😢
It is so underrated
Thank you Dave for your zealous advocacy of Dvorak, I'm sure he would be proud.
Dave, love the review as always. Your ability to deliver these heavily nuanced talks without notes or prompter is astounding! I have the Naxos cd of this very underrated concerto and absolutely love it; it hooks you right out of the gate. The concerto somehow reminds me of the Brahms second, particularly the second half of Dvorak's first movement. Like you, I love almost everything Dvorak wrote. As Jackee Mason said of pringles, "You don't have to 'develop' a taste for it, because it's good!" It's the same with Dvorak, whose stunningly melodious music just finds its way into your heart naturally.
Dave, I'm another person who blew this music off-- it went completely over my head, no idea of what was going on. After listening to your talk, I dug out Aimard's recording and thought it was the most original , beautiful thing I had ever heard. You're opening up whole new worlds for us! Thanks.
That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me! Thank you.
@@DavesClassicalGuide Awwwww...
Pierre-Laurent Aimard has also made an excellent recording of Dvorak's piano concerto. His performance of the 2nd movement is especially lovely.
Love the Dvorak Piano Concerto! Especially the downward scale passage in the middle of the first movement. Actually it goes down but ascends to the next tone/chord and just builds with intensity. Such emotion and Czech spirit felt throughout. As David said, the Naxos version is excellent and a great alternative if you find others to be too pricey.
Thank you! A great talk about this most marvelous concerto, so illuminating and interesting.
I learn so much !!!!
Thank you for this survey of a truly lovely work. Love the Yiddish!
Hands held up, I admit that I’ve always had difficulty getting on board with his piano concerto…but after listening to your insights and explanation of its structure, I’m looking forward to revisiting it, from a new and more informed mindset. Many thanks for the education, as always! Your channel is a beacon amongst all the turgid banality! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Primakov is WONDERFUL! Thank you for the suggestion - I did not even know it existed.
One of yours top videos. I learnt a lot. A personal note, in the 90s in Brazil there was a few record stores with classical music cds. Everything imported and very expensive, like twice the price in Europe or more. And we buy what they offered and most recording were not available for long. Richter version i bought from a street vendor! They do not usually sell neither classical neither imported cds, but I remember saw this one downtown, and bought it without any information about it. Now I know everything I need to know.
Thanks, David, I loved the way you stood up for the concerto and I certainly learnt a lot about it from your talk. I do have the Richter/Kleiber recording but have nevr foun ot partivularly interesting so I think it's time I listened to some of your other recommendations, particularly the Firkušný (whom I also have plying three of the Martinu Concerti with LIbor Pecek and the Czech PO)
This talk has made me reconsider this concerto. Thanks.
Could never be an official recommendation but for sheer recklessness Richter/LSO /Kondrashin are worth hearing in the finale as they dispatch it in slightly less than ten minutes.
What an excellent tribute to a neglected work. Another concerto comes to my mind in relation to this one... Scriabin's! Maybe a talk someday? Thanks for all the richness your channel provides to classical music lovers.
Had to revisit these after your review of Firkusny. Since you ask, 18:10 reminds me strongly of the cancan from La boutique fantasque, which would make it Rossini I guess.
I'm delighted to hear of your love for this, the most neglected of Dvořák's mature concerti. I first learned of it through the Friedrich Wührer recording with Rudolf Moralt and the Vienna Symphony on Vox. Of course, it's the Kurz text, and it's almost too bad you ruled Kurz out completely, because Rudolf Firkušný's first recording, which uses it, was with Szell and the New York Philharmonic for Columbia! I recall that Rudolf Firkušný made the transition from Kurz to the original; the Westminster (with Somogyi) and the Vox (with Susskind) were mongrel editions, as was the live performance with Cantelli and New York.
Amazing. You are the first person I've seen who also loves this version, which was my introduction to this fabulous work.
Thank you an excellent video, it's made me revise my opinion of the work. Any chance of you doing a video on the symphonic poems?
Yes!
For those who have the SZELL box, Firkusny recorded it with Szell in the fifties. The sound is excellent mono, and the performance is wonderful.....revised version.
For those who dont have the box, it is available as a download on Am. Not sure of the sound there.....
So glad you did this! I just read your review of the Kahanek recording today and was happy to see the last Firkusny as the reference recording. That’s my favorite also and the coupling for my money has the best Janacek concerted piano performances. I have Richter, too, but listen to that disc for the Schubert Wanderer Fantasy with which it is coupled.
When I got into Dvorak I got my hands on everything I could find. But when I heard his piano Concerto I wasn’t so moved. Probably because my standards for piano concertos were based on Rachmaninov and Brahms and Tchaikovsky. But now, David, I think maybe I didn’t hear Dvorak but that other guy’s messing with it. Perhaps.
My first recording was the old Vanguard with Firkusny, who did a mashup of the original and Kurz editions. He eventually went on the use the original exclusively, I understand. When I replaced it, it was with Franz/Bernstein (after having met Franz in Osaka, where he played the Schumann in 1976).
Very good video! As a czech pianist who played this piece (Dvořak´s piano part), allow me to share my experience. To be honest, I simply like the concerto, but I never adored it. For the pianist, it is a fingerbreaking piece although it may not sound like it from the recordings. I have played all Bartok´s piano concertos, Prokofiev´s Second, but I still consider Dvořak´s as the most difficult. There are some really beautiful sequences - I love the second movement the most, other movements are strongly influenced by Beethoven Fourth concerto - he cannot deny it. However, the concerto has some problems. When you hear it live at the concert, Dvořak´s piano part really does not sound that good and effective as it sounds on the recordings. It is a tremendous difference and many of my coleagues and professors agree, that for the concerts and live playing - they prefer Kurz´s part, or some of the pianists make their own mix between Dvořak and Kurz. For the recordings it is of course much easier balancing the orchestra and the soloist.
Many pianists simply think, that this concerto means a lot of hard work - for nothing. Even though they like the piece, they just refuse to spend so much time to learn such ungrateful work. During my learning of this piece, I often asked myself, if it even made sense to continue. When I played the Dvořak´s piano part with orchestra, it was really a struggle, because the part is risky and unforgiving, but for the audience - it sounds easy. I have to admit that there are even some nonsense in Dvořák´s piano part - for example at the end, the last thrill in the concerto - he writes there a double-sixth thrill in both hands - which is physically impossible to play and nobody plays it that way. Overall, it is a beautiful piece and should be played more, on the other hand - from my experience I can understand why many pianists hate it to play it. And from Dvořak´s letters we know he admitted, that he was not able to play it himself (even though he was a good pianist, but not a virtuoso) and was never fully convinced about quality of this piece.
Well, I was with you until that last line, about Dvorak being convinced about the quality of the piece.That is untrue. I also disagree that it does not sound well live. That is not true. It sounds fine. There are no issues of balance if the soloist and conductor are on the same page. I have heard it several times in the original version and there are no problems. Otherwise, I appreciate your taking the time to share your insights.
What are you talking about?
Of course it's physically possible to play
Maybe it's impossible if you have extremely small hands, but if not, you can certainly play it with the knowledge of the correct coordination.
Thanks for your experience
Peripheral to the main point of this review, but it is highly tempting to nominate the various small concertmaster solos in "The Golden Spinning Wheel" for inclusion in the "World's Greatest Melodies" compilation(s). Absolutely exquisite... I.V. will likely in the end select something from the denizen of St. Florian--- the second presentation of the B subject from the slow movement of the mighty #5 in Bb+ readily comes to mind--- but the G.S.W. tunes come awfully close...
What do you think about the Firkusny/Kubelik recording?
I bought a Schwann LP (in the sales) about 43 years ago (when I was 14) of the Dvorak concerto . It was a Justus Frantz/Helmut Müller-Brühl recording. Not the greatest of recordings I think, but I liked the music.
So did I, except it was 45 years ago and I was 28. It's the LP licensed from Schwann by the Musical Heritage Society, and for the moment it's still the only version I have. The translated liner note mentions the Kurtz revision but doesn't specifically say whether or not it's used. It appears to have been recorded a year or two before Krantz's recording with Bernstein which Dave said used the original Dvorak.
Do you know Richter/ Svetlanov performance? The sound, like some of that old russian's recordings, are not good, but the interpretation is so better that Richter/Kleiber... I have read that Richter said about his second recording that, in the time of that recording, also himself and Kleiber are not in their best form...
Yes, I have heard it, but no need to bother with bad sound, Richter or not.
Smetana's Bartered Bride is also in the Mozartian line in so many ways. M of F, but also Die Z. Dv seems to me to be closely influenced by Haydn and Schubert, more perhaps than Brahms. His melodic inventiveness, for instance, and love of dance and folk music....
Oddly, during the excerpts I was getting flashes of Saint-Saens! Albeit S-S played rather slowly.
I’m sorry that this has nothing to do with the video, but what is in your opinion the best Mahler cycle? I want to buy a CD of a Mahler cycle, but I don’t want to buy individual CD's.
See my reviews on ClassicsToday.com please.
+Vincent D. Bertini and/or Tennstedt. I think David also likes the Kubelik cycle.
David, I'd like to know what do you think about the Ohlsson-Belohlavek-Czech Philharmonic recording in Decca. Indeed, I was thinking of buying the Decca Belohlavek box with all Dvorak's symphonies and concertos. Is it recommended?
Thanks!!
The PC isn't bad, but the box as a whole is extremely boring.
@@DavesClassicalGuide , ups, then I'll choose another one for the complete symphonies. Thanks so much!
@@josecarmona9168 The complete symphonies with Suitner and the Staatskapelle Dresden is superb and you can get it for about $15. And you can't go wrong with Kertesz/LSO or Kubelik/Berlin.
@@Don-md6wn , thank you very much for your recommendation. I already have the Kubelik, in the box of the complete recordings in DG, and, excelent as they are, I think the sound is not quite good. Now, I'll include Kertesz and Suitner in the list. 👌
@@josecarmona9168 I've had Kertesz for a long time and he has probably been the general consensus recommendation, but I bought the Suitner based on David's recommendation since it was so cheap. I think the sound is better and Suitner makes a more compelling case for the first 5 symphonies. Also, there aren't any symphonies split across discs with Suitner like there are with Kertesz.
Very good talk as ever. One post below suggests otherwise but I've always thought that Wührer was the first recording to use the original published version. Two performances I like you didn't mention - recording for the centenary by Bruno Rigutto French Radio O / Mácal and more recent one by Piemontesi BBCSO / Bělohlávek. Very good notes for that one describing history before publication and the real original.
Oh, but Belohlavek is so dull in that set of performances! Such a pity.
I felt the Decca set with Czech Philharmonic was generally disappointing too but I like the BBC issue on another small.label which was the one I meant. Not so sure about the Schumann coupling.
I think this concerto is in the top 10 of hardest piano concertos ever written !!
What is your opinion ? Please reply 🙏😊
I couldn't say, but Richter agreed with you.
@@DavesClassicalGuide thank you for your reply
Speaking of the Dvorak tone poems, your humble gadfly thinks it is LONG overdue for Master Critic Dave to review the COMPLETE late tone poems [opus 107, 108, 109, 110, and 111]. Then once you are finished with that, the orchestral excerpts from all his operas. Or do those even exist? That also begs the question of why his operas are not being done anywhere, it seems, except perhaps in his native Bohemia or in Czechia. More information about those operas would be appreciated as well, thank you...
I've done the tone poems.
Sorry i missed that one then. My apologies...
I didn't know that Brahms liked this concerto! And Brahms was correct.
You say that Dvorak couldn't have been copying Brahms because he didn't know Brahms (from you mentioning this I assume you meant that he hadn't heard Brahms performed). Do we know, however, that he was unfamiliar with Brahms scores (a serious question; I have no Idea, but have a feeling that you might)?
Yes, we do know.
Considering Dvorak's concerto came 17 years after the Brahm 1, that seems unlikely. But I don't think Dvorak's concerto sounds like Brahms.
Isn't it great. I had one of those nocturnal experience (steady on!). I go to sleep listening to BBC Radio 3 and every so often I'm in a state of semi-consciousness when my brain follows the argument of a musical piece in the middle of the night. Dvorak's piano concerto was something that happened and I've decided to stop fannying about, worried about the amount of stuff out there, and eschew some sort of deep-seated guilt and focus on Antonin. I love Czechia having been five times as early as 1990. This is Czechia personified.
Starting with the Primakov/Brown Odense recording. So good.
I've previously found this concerto rather aimless, unimpressive and forgettable. I'll give it another go.