BaL 20.04.19/11.01.20 - Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor

[cloughie]

Well today I had Rameau playing in the sunny kitchen at first coffee-time - now there's some perfect April music... (Hippolyte et Aricie and Surprises d'Amour..)

As should have been self-evident given my frequently-expressed adoration of the composer, it isn't Schumann's (beautiful, original & inspired) Piano Concerto I object to but the BaL choice of it... with such a large field, you could choose so many it really is a Hobson's BaL.
(What about.. a BaL on the Violin Concerto, or the Cello Concerto including the version for Violin...)

There are so many things they could do with this slot (things never done or very rarely), it just seems a wasted resource sometimes, is all.
(Personally though it doesn't help that the Schumann/Grieg c/w was one of the few early LPs in our household, so was played and played and played and...)

(It was in fact the Melnikov Erard/Freiburg Baroque recording which brought the piece to life for me again just a few years ago... I betcha that figures somewhere in the shortlist...)

***
Lucy Parham could liven things up by discussing the original version of the Concerto, the single-movement allegro affetuoso Fantasy in A Minor for Piano/Orchestra...it dates from 1841; the familiar Piano Concerto was the 1845 result of three later revisions.

I don’t know if it has ever featured on BAL but I would love to hear R-K’s Antar!

[Richard Barrett]

There are so many things they could do with this slot (things never done or very rarely), it just seems a wasted resource sometimes, is all.

And the same could I think be said about Radio 3 in general. (See discussions on other threads about programming changes.) Informed listeners are being shunted aside in favour of "absolute beginners". We were all absolute beginners at one point, and (speaking for myself anyway) became informed listeners because Radio 3 drew us into the world of this music by showing all of its sides and not just those deemed to be suitable for classical-music virgins. I'm finished with Radio 3, except on those very rare occasions when it broadcasts something I can't hear any other way. It can shut down tomorrow as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway: regarding the piece in question: it didn't make any sense to me, seeming flabby and formless, until I heard Staier's recording (combined on my CD with the Second Symphony), when everything magically fell into place.

[gurnemanz]

I don’t know if it has ever featured on BAL but I would love to hear R-K’s Antar!

Just copied this from the BaL archive. Looks like a twofer

SCHUMANN: Piano Concerto in A minor Op 54 Harriet Smith & Kenneth Hamilton
12/06/2010


Consensus recommendations:

Andreas Staier (fortepiano) / Orchestre des Champs Elysees / Philippe Herreweghe (conductor)
c/w SCHUMANN: Cello Concerto in A minor Op 129
Christophe Coin (cello) / Orchestre des Champs Elysees / Philippe Herreweghe (conductor)
Harmonia Mundi HMA1951731 (CD, budget)

Walter Gieseking (piano) / Dresden State Orchestra / Karl Bohm (conductor)
c/w FRANCK: Symphonic Variations for piano and orchestra M46*; GRIEG: Piano Concerto in A minor Op 16^
*London Philharmonic Orchestra / Henry Wood (conductor)
^ Berlin State Opera Orchestra / Hans Rosbaud (conductor)
Naxos 8111110 (CD, budget)

[gurnemanz]

What about.. a BaL on the Violin Concerto

I'll second that. Piano was done only nine years ago.

[Tony Halstead]

The saddest, most unfortunate and regrettable 'might have been' was the Malcolm Bilson / John Eliot Gardiner / O.R.R. recording for DGG, in or about 1990-1991. I haven't made this up, as I was playing on it. Inexplicably it was never released.

[Bryn]

The saddest, most unfortunate and regrettable 'might have been' was the Malcolm Bilson / John Eliot Gardiner / O.R.R. recording for DGG, in or about 1990-1991. I haven't made this up, as I was playing on it. Inexplicably it was never released.

Indeed, both regrettable and most curious.

[pastoralguy]

The saddest, most unfortunate and regrettable 'might have been' was the Malcolm Bilson / John Eliot Gardiner / O.R.R. recording for DGG, in or about 1990-1991. I haven't made this up, as I was playing on it. Inexplicably it was never released.

I wonder if the artists weren't happy with the results and blocked its release. Then again, there could be legal jiggery-pockery at work too.

[jayne lee wilson]

And the same could I think be said about Radio 3 in general. (See discussions on other threads about programming changes.) Informed listeners are being shunted aside in favour of "absolute beginners". We were all absolute beginners at one point, and (speaking for myself anyway) became informed listeners because Radio 3 drew us into the world of this music by showing all of its sides and not just those deemed to be suitable for classical-music virgins. I'm finished with Radio 3, except on those very rare occasions when it broadcasts something I can't hear any other way. It can shut down tomorrow as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway: regarding the piece in question: it didn't make any sense to me, seeming flabby and formless, until I heard Staier's recording (combined on my CD with the Second Symphony), when everything magically fell into place.

Richard - you really need to hear Melnikov/Freiburg Baroque/Heras-Casado on HM...(released 2015, n/a for the 2010 BaL...)

[Bryn]

Richard - you really need to hear Melnikov/Freiburg Baroque/Heras-Casado on HM...

I'll drink to that. I intend listening to it on my way to iklectik this afternoon.

[silvestrione]

There are so many things they could do with this slot (things never done or very rarely), it just seems a wasted resource sometimes, is all.
.

I strongly advise you to list them, then, here or on some other appropriate thread. I did this a few years back, and whether it was coincidence or not, some of them have since been 'done' (Beethoven Sym 3 and 4, Schubert late sonata in C minor, I remember particularly)

[Pianoman]

Richard - you really need to hear Melnikov/Freiburg Baroque/Heras-Casado on HM...(released 2015, n/a for the 2010 BaL...)

I've just done that - downloaded from Presto and cheap at the moment. Very illuminating, steady last movement but bags of good things throughout, and also worth it for the Trio coupling.

[Barbirollians]

Why is this being done again when it was done so recently when numerous repertoire works have not been done for donkeys years and to be honest with a less distinguished reviewer than last time ? Parham’s BAL of Rachmaninov PC No 2 some years back was dreadful .

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

You're never going to please all of the people for all of the time.

[jayne lee wilson]

I strongly advise you to list them, then, here or on some other appropriate thread. I did this a few years back, and whether it was coincidence or not, some of them have since been 'done' (Beethoven Sym 3 and 4, Schubert late sonata in C minor, I remember particularly)

...vide supra....

[gurnemanz]

Blast from the past ... I notice we did a Grieg/Schumann thread a while ago. Whatever happy to the contributor Sir Monty Golfear?