Rendano Piano Concerto

[terry martyn]

I've played it a number of times now, and it improves on better acquaintance to the extent that I am beginning to think it coheres.  But there are a lot more works that I'd rather rehear, and it's gone on the shelf now.

To my ears ,the Bolet performance of the Sgambati beats it hollow.

[Alan Howe]

I'm tempted to add that Sgambati is by some distance the better composer. It seems to me that Rendano's ambition (in his PC) rather outstrips his talent as a composer.

[Mark Thomas]

Rendano's Piano Concerto is a bore. The first movement huffs and puffs and goes nowhere (but takes an age to do it), the second initially promises rhapsodic beauty, but the piano part is just aimless noodling. Bizarrely, the finale is the most successful, but the bar's been set so low by its predecessors that that isn't much of an achievement. This is one case of the justly unsung.

[tuatara442442]

I agree with you all. I tried to listen to the live performance by Giovanni Alvino already posted on YT a few times months ago but just can't keep myself focused on it. It's really boring.

[semloh]

It's a dog's breakfast that any self-respecting canine would refuse. Understandably, everyone concerned looks bored.

[Ilja]

Sorry to pile on, but after devoting some time to this I can only agree with the consensus. It's interesting that a comparison between the finale of this work and Rubinstein's work was made, because particularly the first movement of the Rendano PC demonstrates a lack of critical self-reflection that also affects many of Rubinstein's works, although I don't see how even the most rigorous editing would turn this into a minor masterpiece.

As Mark has stated, the Finale is by far the best movement of the three. However, even here there is an excess of pianistic noodling, the whole thing just peters out into nothingness, and Rendano's shortcomings in orchestration are all too evident: it's all rather ham-fisted and unimaginative. And the whole thing doesn't even exist in the same universe of inspiration as any of Sgambati's works.