Messages

Godard's solo piano music is very beautiful; far above "salon music" and pre-figures Faure harmonically. Philip Martin recorded a cd , too, on Marco Polo:)

Now we just need "Boabdil" from this exquisitely beautiful and deep(yes, deep lol!) composer, whose piano works , like Godard's, are the precursor of that elusive beauty we find in Faure(the early Faure is the most obvious comparison). That re-discovered early Piano Concerto almost outdid the more well-known one in passion, poignancy and grandeur. I never get why people aren't moved by this composer; you only have to hear the melody of the Violin Concerto slow movement; I know I have said it before, but it is possibly the most sublime melody I have heard. Perhaps I might break my current cd buying ban and invest in this current issue!Steve

What happened to the download of this(:?

That is fab,Hadrianus; the futuristic pentatonic or is it whole tone scales at start; then the wonderfully seraphic parts 2 and 3, with that haunting melody of salvation, prefigured in part 2 and returning a couple of times in Part 3; not to mention "Judex". I think the canonic reputation of this piece, with "Redemption " unrecorded, just shows how hegemonically and socially constructed that canon(in part) IS; Mors et Vita is one of the sublimest and,dare I say it,GREATEST choral works for its ferocity and adventurous harmonies in part 1 and its sheer melodic beauty and joy(eg final fugue) in parts 2 and 3. The "received" "academic" opinion is that it is overly saccharine; which is nonsense and just a value judgement anyway. Gounod was another link to Faure. I have some of the operas on LP: I must listen:). Nice to hear ur enthusiasm hadrianus:)Steve

Great: "Mors et Vita", though an oratorio, not an opera, is one of the most successful dramatic works I know!Steve

I so agree Dennis; the slow movement is growing on me;no-one can ever mistake Moszkowski for anyone else, even at this tender age!I see a lineage from his solo piano writing to Sgambati(Spada playing)and Godard to, significantly,Faure; a sort of intensified, limpid salon music; the similarities with some of Godard's piano music(Philip Martin on Marco Polo) and Sgambati's are striking. That process started with Moszkowski's effortless but not weightless flow of, again, limpid inspiration.And what a good orchestrator as u say! Steve

Oops , Gareth:)Am i thinking of "Boabdil"?Steve

What strikes me first re this wonderful concerto is how Moszkowski's style was already quite well formed at the age of 20; the finale, in particular, has his usual bittersweet insouciance: that kind of slightly forced happiness, despite everything; beautiful melodies;the aforementioned orientalism in the opening. But there is a slight difference: I detect a slightly greater grandeur, a greater majesterialness than the later , more famous(relatively!) PC. I still fail to see why this composer, who writes so idiomatically for piano AND orchestra, is so little known and sometimes maligned(slightly, anyway: Mark:P) for superficial or sugary emotion; I find his music some of the most moving ever; it has a resignation about it;almost an existentialist feel of "lets get on with it and have fun; life is so short and absurd". I know that is my (relativistic) opinion!Anyway, I DO hope the Symphony and Joan of Arc opera are recorded!Thanks so much to the excellent pianist who uploaded this . Btw, I also recommend the Toccata in homage to Schumann for piano, the solo piano music generally and the great Violin Concerto, with its Elgarian (?pre) echo in the slow movement, the melody of which is ineffably beautiful, and I would put up there with the canonic Violin Concerti, as well as all the Bruch and the Goldmark!Just listening now to the very end of the early PC, and it has a section quoted at (I think)  the end of the later PC, of the shrugging your shoulders in resignation/stoicism variety.Steve

Thanks Gareth; so there IS a full, grand tutti at the start of the opening movement?Cheers, Steve

Is the Kann version(Vox) intro tutti of the first movement cut?; and is there an uncut version? Thanks.Steve.ps this work grew on me, with its delicate second subject in the finale, where all the whirligig passagework temporarily comes to a halt!And I should LOVE to hear a FULL grand opening tutti(which there is in Boehm's recording of the second PC)

This is fab:)D'Albert's massive, thematically cyclic first piano concerto is one of those unknown pieces that is SO good!(and of course the Second Piano Concerto, a mad, ineffably tuneful romp, especially played as it, as uninhibitedly as it should be, in 17/18 minutes, by Maestro Ponti!)Steve

Yes, a sort of sad romp, despite everything type romp lol; I like a good (musical!) romp; that's why I love Ponti, eg in finale of the Raff PC

I agree with jerfilm, but in reverse order of choice: Scharwenka 3 (a masterpiece of cyclic compression, and melodic beauty)and then Moszkowski(E major!) for poignancy, beautiful, idiomatic piano writing and a bitter-sweetness,a  sort of "it must be so" I cannot (quite) put into words!(the end of the finale, with its despairing slow theme followed by a perfunctory ending). Steve

Thalberg, how/where did u get to listen to the early Moszkowski PC? Thanks, Steve

The chances of it being genuine are about as high as ALL artists on the delta/Fidelio/Summit/early Concert artist LPs/EPs; ie we will never really definitively know; remember, this all has to be put into the context of Barrington-Coupe's(and others, eg Saga Records) utilization of tapes from USSR/Eastern Europe of recordings which for (alleged?) copyright reasons, had pseudonymous names anyway. The entity known as Hatto DID definitely, as pointed out above, record Gaze -Cooper; but who the artist really is is moot. I tend, but perhaps is wishful thinking, to (want to) think she DId actually make all the Saga and Delta(etc) early/mid 60s recordings, as well as the Bax Revolution label 1971 Symphonic Variations, but I do not think this can be ever proved definitively. Steve