Helvi Leiviskä Piano Concerto (1935)

[Alan Howe]

On the edge of our remit at times - but try the ending!
From 1:07:59 to 1:53:10: https://areena.yle.fi/1-50570939?seek=4060

[Gareth Vaughan]

My goodness. Miss (or Mrs) Leiviska's piano concerto is a brilliant work - very "Romantic", very sonorous, and a major work-out for the pianist. I loved it.

[Alan Howe]

Me too. Would Hyperion be interested?

[Mark Thomas]

I absolutely agree - it's a powerful and, as Gareth wrote, sonorous piece. Most individual and impressive. I've made a set of mp3s from the video and they're available in our Downloads Board here.

[Alan Howe]

Lovely - thanks very much, Mark.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Yes, many thanks indeed. I will try to interest Hyperion.

[Alan Howe]

I wonder what a suitable coupling might be. Any ideas, Gareth?

[Martin Eastick]

I would suggest Ernst Linko's 2nd Concerto, which would keep things Finnish! it weighs in at just under 19 minutes, so would be ideal from a length perspective. This work has always been a favourite of mine since I discovered it on this forum!

[Febct]

Phew!  Another Finnish unknown - introduced to me (us?) by this powerful gem of a movement.  Thank you, Alan.

Maybe couple with the PC of Kimmo Hakola?  A little advanced and, possibly, beyond consideration - but it's a whirlwind of a piece running just under one hour.

[Alan Howe]

Here's Ernst Linko's PC2 of 1918-20:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcbE4Z951Fo

A great suggestion, Martin!

See this previous thread:
https://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,6677.0/sslRedirect.html

[tpaloj]

Ernst Linko happened to be the pianist who premiered Leiviskä's concerto back in the day, by the way. Linko's #2 would make a good coupling - or even better would be #1, which is still unrecorded. It's also a short piece, somewhere within 15-20 mins or so.

[Gareth Vaughan]

My initial thought was the PC of Ilmari Hannikainnen but the Linko concerto No. 2 (or No. 1  for that matter) is an obvious candidate.

[Richard Moss]

Mark,

Having a problem with the new Leiviska download - my PC, after clicking on your Mediafire link, starts a new tab and then immediately closes it and jumps back to where it came from.  Is it just my PC or a quirk with the link?

Any help appreciated

Richard Moss

[Richard Moss]

Mark,

Apologies for my stupidity - I hadn't noticed the download was executed so quickly.  No probs after all!!

Richard

[semloh]

Wholeheartedly agree with all the positive responses. What a thoroughly engaging concerto, I was entranced. This lady was shockingly talented. Thank you for posting it, Alan.