Vittorio Giannini

[sdtom]

Written in 1930 but definitely a romantic piece this piano concerto was yet another new discovery for me.  Has anyone else heard this relatively new Naxos recording?
Thomas

[Alan Howe]

Yes - lovely stuff. Can't go wrong at Naxos' price either!

[sdtom]

Yes there is a good bit of the "schmalz" in it but I'm listening to it again this morning and picking up more of the nuance of the piece.
Thomas

[orff]

Yes, I think this Concerto by Giannini is one of the real unsung delights of 20th century American music.  For its stunning passages, its Rachmaninoff-ian feel and at Naxos' price - no one interested can afford to miss out.

[sdtom]

http://sdtom.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/piano-concerto-symphony-no-4giannini/

I don't think that you can go wrong.  I have to put this in the list of 250 recordings you don't have but should.
Thomas

[Steve B]

Checked out ur blog, sdtom. Nice reviews. Will try Mckay's "American dance Symphony"

[Amphissa]

 
Enjoyed listening to this for the first time last night, and it is one I'll want to keep in my rotation for awhile.

But, what's up with that ending? It just stops dead. I looked to see if something had gone wrong with my CD player. Surely a bit of sustain on the last note would have helped. I felt like - well, they must have been missing the final page of the score and just played it up to the point they had.

This one goes on my list of music with the worst endings. A letdown after such a good concerto.

[TerraEpon]

This one goes on my list of music with the worst endings. A letdown after such a good concerto.

I don't remember this music having such a problem.

Now for one that does, look at Weber's 2nd Symphony. Even after three-four listens I thought there was something wrong with my headphone connection.
(Thankfully a different recording which didn't put it last helped a lot)

[JimL]

I don't know what you're talking about.  The finale of Weber's 2nd Symphony is one of the classic musical jokes of all time, ending, as it does with the double basses taking a final stab at the main motive of the movement.  If some conductor "didn't put it last" he mangled the movement.

[TerraEpon]

If some conductor "didn't put it last" he mangled the movement.

Oh I just mean the symphony last on the disc.

[Amphissa]

Played the Giannini again last night with my wife in hearing range. When it ended, she said "What happened?"

I can appreciate a joke ending. The ending of Rachmaninoff's Paganini Rhapsody ends with a joke. But that was intentional and everyone listening "gets it." I don't know what was going on in Gianini's mind, but somehow I don't think it was intended as a joke. Anyway, I hope someone else records this and deviates from the score enough to add a few beats of sustain on the end.

Getting off topic a bit, I suppose, it was very common back then for soloists, conductors and anyone else to cut and revise works according to their own artistic interpretation. That's fallen out of favor in recent decades, but I would not be averse to seeing the practice return. Horowitz was the last of the great soloists with enough power and guts to impose his own rewrites. With all the cookie-cutter soloists and sound-alike orchestras around now, I'd be happy to hear more creativity on the concert stage and in the studio.

Of course, that presumes a level of talent that may be in short supply. I suspect there are few Horowitz's and Stokowski's around these days.

[mbhaub]

One of the real problems for performers these days are the critics. So many of them demand total adherence to the score: no cuts, no reorchestration, and no shenanigans like weird phrasing, extreme dynamics etc. Conductors who dare make the music fit their ideal are skewered in reviews for their vision. In the dramatic arts, we expect actors and directors to mold a play to fit their vision and the times, but somehow in music we have become stuck in a groove. It's so hard for young conductors these days especially because of recordings. Who has the guts to do anything out of the ordinary with say the Mahler 4th, knowing your going to be compared to Reiner, Szell, Solti, Bernstein, Klemperer, Haitink, Maazel, Fischer, Kletzki and others who have turned in dazzling accounts. I don't find Stokowski too interesting (I think he ruins so much music) but there's no one out there who would take the risks he did.

On the other hand, I personally don't like cuts at all. It disfigures music. I may wish the composer had made some judicious edits but since they didn't, the conductor shouldn't. I have to admit that the finales of the Tchaikovsky violin concerto and the Manfred are both improved by the cuts that were so often taken, but no one will record them that way anymore. (Come to think of it though, I do have a recent Manfred with Fedoseyev who butchers and disfigures it beyond the pale.)

Orchestration changes are a tougher matter. Playing in orchestras myself, I get a first-hand view of why it's sometimes needed. But please, no xylophone in Scheherazade, no timpani on the last note of the first movement of the Rach 2nd. And don't even think about retouching Mahler, Elgar, or Puccini.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Am I missing something? There seems to my ear to be nothing inconclusive or abrupt about the ending of Giannini's PC.

[Alan Howe]

I must missing something too. Seems fine to me...