BBC Piano Season

[doversoul1]

I probably haven't scanned the posts on this thread carefully enough, but IMO one very good thing about this 'piano season' is CotW, its Clementi theme and its outings of various early pianos at Finchcocks and elsewhere.

Definitely IMO, too. And here is another good thing: some great recordings on Through the Night:
Monday 17th
Jonathan Swain presents the first of six concerts of piano music from the European archives, including Clifford Curzon playing Mozart, Artur Rubinstein in Chopin and Shura Cherkassky playing Schumann.
12:31 AM
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791)
Piano Concerto No.27 in B flat major (K.595)
Clifford Curzon (piano), Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink (conductor)
1:02 AM
Scott, Cyril (1879-1970)
Lotus Land (Op.47 No.1)
Cyril Scott (piano)
1:06 AM
Chopin, Fryderyk (1810-1849)
Concerto for piano and orchestra No.2 (Op.21) in F minor
Artur Rubinstein (piano), National Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Witold Rowicki (conductor)
1:36 AM
Schumann, Robert (1810-1856)
Carnaval, scènes mignonnes sur quatre notes for piano (Op.9)
Shura Cherkassky (piano)
2:07 AM
Grieg, Edvard (1843-1907)
Norwegian Bridal march - from Pictures from country life for piano (Op.19 No.2)
Edvard Grieg (piano)
2:10 AM
Grieg, Edvard (1843-1907)
Sommerfugl - from Lyric pieces, book 3 for piano (Op.43 No.1)
Edvard Grieg (piano)
2:13 AM
Shostakovich, Dmitri (1906-1975)
Concerto for piano and orchestra no.2 (Op.102) in F
Dmitri Shostakovich (piano), Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, Konstantin Iliev (conductor)

Followed by Magnificat by CPE Bach, and Violin Sonata by Vivaldi (this line can be ignored by non early music fans)

Next week’s Composer of the Week is John Field and Chopin.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mslsc

I hope the programmes will take this opportunity to explore Field whose music is not very often played.

[BBMmk2]

I've been enjoying CoTW to! Clementi has been an enjoyable experience!

Anyone, here, while learning tom play piano, who remembers playing those Sonatinas(Op.39, I think)

[LeMartinPecheur]

The BBC Piano Season is having its effect. Thanks to its repetitions and frequent utter banality I've just taken an axe to Mrs LMP's boudoir grand

Don't worry, it'll help keep us warm through the winter...

[teamsaint]

Surely you mean
a real, electronic instrument ?

this


is a fake, cake, electronic instrument

use that in a recital, and that would be one way to have the audience eating out of the palm of your hand.

[Petrushka]

What's the piece being played on the TV trailers for the Piano season?

I've never been one to listen to piano music very much as I crave the sound of the orchestra but on Saturday, August 19 I happened to be at St Pancras Station where a tall, young, bearded and bespectacled man was playing on the 'play me' piano situated in the station foyer. He was absolutely brilliant, playing Beethoven and Schubert before I had to dash off for my train. A sizeable crowd soon gathered and watched spellbound. Some were recording on mobile phones so it may have ended up on youTube. He really made the piano sing even in those unlikely surroundings and I'd love to know who he was.

[Flay]

Nobody has mentioned tonight's "exciting climax to the piano season" yet today.

On the 4th October I posted this on the "Why Aren't There Any Shows Explaining How The Music Works?" thread

The best we have on R3 is Discovering Music. This used to be up to an hour long and the episodes were studio-produced, intelligently discussed and illustrated. Now they are brief 20 minute or so introductions slotted into concert intervals which fail to do justice the the works.

And as for actually learning instruments - you would now need to have a celeb who had never played a note but who will give a performance in the RAH after 6 weeks, or we apparently won't be interested!

I had no idea that this was actually being planned for tonight, albeit in Wales

The excuse was that it was for Children in Need. Has it worked? Any comment on this Rach 2?

[Pianorak]

Listened to most of it. Fascinating Graham Fitkin Circuit, brilliantly performed by Kathryn Stott and Noriko Ogawa; well-played Bach Concerto for three pianos which I hadn't heard before. Can't really comment on the Rach 2 which I turned off half-way through the first movement. Question of balance between orchestra and piano; conductor and pianist not on same wavelength? Not sure, but just didn't like it.

[Lateralthinking1]

If it all gets people to their first step-s into 'Classical Music', then I am for this. As I said earlier,i am looking forward to that monster PC of Busoni's!! I have John Ogdon's and Msarc-Adrere Hamlin's in my collection.

Brassbandmaestro

I wasn't familiar with Busoni's piano concerto and was feeling pretty low on 11 September when it was broadcast. I tuned in for the Debussy, fully expecting it to ease me into sleep.

But the build-up in the introduction for the second piece was such that I had to give it a go. Longest concerto. Most difficult to play. Actually, more like a symphony. I expected not to like it but that was hardly the point.

And I did like it. I really did. In fact, I was so taken by it that I found a clip on YouTube and immediately listened to it again.

Of course, it has its flaws. I doubt that many would choose it as one of the most coherent works of all time. It is also lacking in subtlety. But it does leave an impression and that is one of excitement. I will want to listen to it on many future occasions.

(It was said that it is very Germanic for an Italian but I thought it sounded Russian. Shows what I know!)

Anyway, the clip features Marc-André Hamelin and is therefore obviously quite brilliant. It is posted here for anyone who might be interested. And it seems fitting as shortly afterwards he presented 'Saturday Classics' as a part of the piano season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohPzurDZzZ4&feature=related

[salymap]

I remember the John Ogdon recording of the Busoni PC very well because my boss was away and I had to get the parts from Germany very quickly, negotiate the hire feesfor the recording - all 80 minutes of it- and sort everything out on my own. Itmust have been in the late 1960s. BUT, I'm ashamed to say that I've never heard that or any other recording. The length seems off putting to me. Imustcatch upwith it - is it ever broadcast?

[Lateralthinking1]

I am listening to it again now. It reminds me in places of Rachmaninoff!

salymap - The September one was a concert from Edinburgh featuring Garrick Ohlsson and the European Union Youth Orchestra. I don't know though how often the John Ogdon recording is played on Radio 3.

[doversoul1]

Listened to most of it. Fascinating Graham Fitkin Circuit, brilliantly performed by Kathryn Stott and Noriko Ogawa; well-played Bach Concerto for three pianos which I hadn't heard before. Can't really comment on the Rach 2 which I turned off half-way through the first movement. Question of balance between orchestra and piano; conductor and pianist not on same wavelength? Not sure, but just didn't like it.

I don’t always (openly) object to Bach being played on the piano but THREE PIANOS (piani?) and calling it Bach’s PIANO CONCERTO was a bit much. Ah well, there are many worse things in life

[salymap]

I don’t always (openly) object to Bach being played on the piano but THREE PIANOS (piani?) and calling it Bach’s PIANO CONCERTO was a bit much. Ah well, there are many worse things in life

There are twoBach Triple piano concertos in my Breitkopf catalogue, one in C,one in D both with string orchestra.

No arrangers or BWV numbers given. I remember one being done at the RAH by three young women pianists in identical dresses. Can't remember what it was like after all this time.

[Vile Consort]

His synthesizer concertos aren't bad either.

[Pianorak]

I don’t always (openly) object to Bach being played on the piano but THREE PIANOS (piani?) and calling it Bach’s PIANO CONCERTO was a bit much. Ah well, there are many worse things in life

BBC4: Excerpt from: Dame Fanny Waterman: A Lifetime in Music

Petroc Trelawney: What were you playing?
Dame Fanny: It was the Bach triple piano concerto - and it was a lovely work and I enjoyed playing it.
Petroc Trelawney reading from “London Notes”: . . . the Leeds pianist Miss Fanny Waterman played in the triple piano Concerto at the Bach promenade concert this evening. [the programme note dated 19 August 1942 reveals it was the Concerto No. 2 in C, for three Pianofortes and Strings. The other two pianists were Joan Baker and Colin Horsley.]

Lateralthinking1: Peter Donohoe recorded the Busoni PC as well.

[Roslynmuse]

BBC4: Excerpt from: Dame Fanny Waterman: A Lifetime in Music

Petroc Trelawney: What were you playing?
Dame Fanny: It was the Bach triple piano concerto - and it was a lovely work and I enjoyed playing it.
Petroc Trelawney reading from “London Notes”: . . . the Leeds pianist Miss Fanny Waterman played in the triple piano Concerto at the Bach promenade concert this evening. [the programme note dated 19 August 1942 reveals it was the Concerto No. 2 in C, for three Pianofortes and Strings. The other two pianists were Joan Baker and Colin Horsley.]

Lateralthinking1: Peter Donohoe recorded the Busoni PC as well.

If this was the concert Salymap was referring to, was Colin Horsley wearing a dress?