Edward MacDowell - Piano Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 15 (1882)
Вставка
- Опубліковано 26 лип 2024
- Edward Alexander MacDowell (December 18, 1860 - January 23, 1908) was an American composer and pianist of the Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites Woodland Sketches, Sea Pieces and New England Idylls. Woodland Sketches includes his most popular short piece, "To a Wild Rose". In 1904 he was one of the first seven Americans honored by membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Please support my channel:
ko-fi.com/bartjebartmans
Piano Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 15 (1882)
Dedication: Franz Liszt
1. Maestoso; Allegro con fuoco (0:00)
2. Andante tranquillo (10:42)
3. Presto (17:34)
Naxos recording
Stephen Prutsman, piano and the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland conducted by Arthur Fagen
Details by Jeremy Nicholas
The concerto, so the story goes, was composed in just two weeks. It was Joachim Raff who frightened MacDowell into writing it. Calling on his American pupil one day, he asked MacDowell what work he had in hand. Standing rather in awe of Raff at that time, MacDowell without thinking blurted out that he was working on a concerto (in fact, he had no thought of doing so). Raff asked him to bring the work to him the following Sunday by which time MacDowell had just managed to write the first movement. Evading Raff until the following Sunday-still not finished!-he put him off again until the Tuesday by which time he had completed the concerto. Raff was so delighted with the results that he advised his pupil to travel to Weimar and show the work to Liszt. This MacDowell did, playing the work to the great man with Eugen d’Albert, no less, playing the orchestral part at the second piano.
After the opening maestoso chords (embellished in the otherwise unchanged edition posthumously issued in 1910), the soloist leads off into the fiery ‘Allegro con fuoco’ first movement. The end of the ‘Andante tranquillo’ second movement offers glimpses of the simple lyricism that was to be a trademark of MacDowell’s future miniatures. The confident finale (‘Presto’) in ABACA form recalls material from the first movement. Though influenced by the last movement of Grieg’s Concerto, MacDowell’s A minor has more in common with Anton Rubinstein’s showpiece concertos and, if the themes lack individuality and their handling is frequently rhetorical, it remains an effective work-one requiring a brilliant technique to bring it off convincingly.
This concerto was the result of a fib that MacDowell told his teacher at the Frankfurt Hochschule, Joseph Joachim Raff. Raff paid a visit to MacDowell's room one Sunday and casually asked his American pupil what he'd been working on. MacDowell, who hadn't been working on anything, blurted out "a piano concerto". Raff asked to see it the following week. MacDowell, worked frantically on it all week, only to find that the next Sunday Raff had other matters to attend to. The meeting was postponed for another few days, giving MacDowell time to complete the concerto, which was dedicated to Franz Liszt and successfully premiered in 1882. His teacher Raff died later that year.
James Levee explains all the sequences.
Really lucky that Raff didn't ask to see it immediately...
James Levee I never knew this! Thanks!
Hilarious!! Really explains all the business in this concerto.
Wow
Raff: So, what piece are you working on Mr. MacDowell? Eddy:. Well, I'm, um, thinking a piano concerto. Raff: Wonderful! Can I have it by Sunday? Eddy:. Well um, sure. Do you mean this Sunday or next?
I love this piano concerto listening to this reminds me of a symphony that makes you happy 😊
0:06 - I. Maestoso. Allegro con fuoco
10:42 - II. Andante tranquillo
17:34 - III. Presto
Fine concerto. I remember performing the second concerto many times in my younger days. Unfortunately, nowadays both of MacDowell’s concerti are almost completely absent from the concert stage.
Sad isn't it?
Unfortunately in these bitter days trash is glorified while beauty & bounty in everything appear to be the opposite of the propaganda where everthing horrible is defined as beautiful in neo-Orwellian fashion, which in music leads to total condemnation of the individual. By tbe way this kind of artistic freedom & sense of beauty in music is not so challenged outside the US. We are now here the depository of all the feces & urine from the world. But Edward MacDowell's brilliant piano concertos illustrate my thesis. They are too beautiful & perfect, therefore ignored. Woe to the US for ignoring our musical geniuses!
@@ripvanwinkle9592 Obviously you have been asleep for too long, Rip. Your nostalgia has gotten the better of you, and you aren't trying too hard to find beauty and bounty these days. I suppose it's easier to sit at home a gnash your teeth. MacDowell is my favorite old US composer, and this particular throw-off is a weak and unconsidered effort. The best part is the opening, and some of the lyrical passages along the way. Other than that, too much bravura or a simple lack of care given (given the short time scale of its composition). There are much better works by MacDowell than this. One would do better to program Vine's sonata than this, if you aren't going to go with something else by MacDowell.
Indubitably, in every age all media is mediocre most of the time. This concerto is a big fish in a little pond. Don't go to the wall for this one much less use it as an occasion for denouncing youthful vacuity now with youthful vacuity from back then. Obviously, too much "classical" music is now finding no home except in movie scores. I personally find that a prostitution of music, but we do live in three centuries of avid prostitution.
@@talastra Oh my dear are you indeed full of crap, and unnecessary verbiage.
Learning the 2nd concerto now. Hoping to one day put it back in the standard rep
The theme in the beginning is chilling.
One of my favorite American works, an absolute masterpiece
Luscious harmonies and beautiful wiring for the piano and orchestra
22:49 A beautiful early use of the pentatonic scale.
Indeed, although I have heard the 2nd piano concerto, (but only on You Tube, never in performance or on the radio), I do believe this is the first time I have heard his 1st piano concerto. And a delight it is.
it is nice... and NOT tooooo "dated"... I think it holds up rather well... I might even like it better the Second... which I know inside out! (having played it)
@World Of Faraz Haider Nice... didn't know this... but it makes sense...
Harry, we don't like the programms on the radio that much, I guess?
A brilliant performance by Stephen Prutsman. Thank you so much for posting.
It's a beautiful work. The Finale seems to be a tad Grieg like in its structure however, only a nerd would notice :-) . It a brilliant work, should be played more.
Well the orchestration was really similar at first but the theme Is different
So i find it a nice touch
Questo concerto dimostra una grande capacità per un
compositore di 23 anni.
Like other disciplines, the music world has blinders on. Presuppositions prevails as to what constitutes wonderful music. Those of us who push past those presuppositions are finding so many of these terrific works that we can't remember them all. This in itself makes it hard for a work to highly regarded. The other amazing works swallow each other up maintaining the the obscurity. It also perpetuates the myths that the most visible works are really the most excellent. Maybe so, maybe not. Myself, I have listened to this work many times over the years. Each time, I enjoy. If Rachmaninoff had poor regard for it as indicated below he was really listening, but let his presuppositions stand in the way.
I'm not sure I would grant you even presuppositions. Most listeners, composers and performers can't even derive suppositions.
Why are concertos not more widely known? It has taken me until I am 87 before I heared them and I was reared on good music
They are..
Your question is a good one. From the standpoint of hearing these pieces live, you're most likely out of luck. The old standards rule the concert hall because most soloists don't vary from the standard repertoire, and most music directors are hard pressed to program anything outside the warhorses for fear of losing ticket sales and backers. The exception is commissioned new works.... which most times are not worth hearing more than once. On the other side, many obscure works are and have been available as recordings. All you have to do is wader around UA-cam to find yourself drowning in riches.
I can't deny how the beginning of this concerto sounds like the Op. 48, No. 1 Nocturne of Chopin.
Hard to believe this dates as long ago as it dies. The feelings stir the b present in me
Every run sends shivers v of e ccitement into the muscles of my forearms.❤
As beautiful as the second one, maybe more so. Thanks !
You know how this concerto will be the new favorite concerto for most pianists? It has to be featured in a great movie in the whole movie. Like Rach 3 in the movie "Shine" or Prokofiev in "the competition with Richard Dryfus". Untill then it will be nearly impossible to make McDowell piano works to get well known.
Love it. Thank you so much for sharing. 👍🤗🆒🥂🍾 happy New Year.
Yes, it should be on the popular menu. I enjoyed it a lot.
third movement. So Greig! I love it❤
Magnificent!
I recognize both the structural superiority of the d minor concerto, and of course, it's greater popularity, but I must say, for something dashed off to appease a stern teacher, I find this concerto quite appealing.
Прекрасная вещь! Живая, на одном дыхании!
Energisch sehr schön Piano Konzert ♫♪☺
so funktioniert Deutsch nicht
Just a marvelous find for me!
Questo concerto, tutt'altro che semplice ,si muove per me sull'asse :Tchaikowsky/Rubinstein per arrivare alla radice di.... Mendelssohn.
L'orchestrazione è fine e affascinante.
Bravo Bartje per questo bell'inserimento e lo spartito a corredo.
The second movement is just D I V I N E.
Amazing!!!! I wanna learn this piece. I played Khachaturian piano concerto 1st movement in college, but would have played this if given the option back then!
Makes me think about Grieg's concerto.
It somehow makes me think more of Dvorak's :)
+Bampaloudu64 I completely agree with you.
Both are like Schumann's concerto.
Its just me or almost all lesser known piano concerto opening had Grieg-esque opening
Dude, your name is awesome
I played this in college once it was soooooo hard
Eventually, MacDowell dedicated this concerto to Liszt, who was delighted with the piece.
And, I can see why he was so.
Bartje! I thought about tagging you in a post to see if you had heard of MacDowell. I had just heard his Piano Concerto 2 for the first time. So I had to see what else he had done and saw the score. I was hoping it was one of your posts. I can't imagine how this has flown under my radar.
A beautiful work. It is such a shame that it not part of the regular concert repertoire. It deservers to be up there with the Tchaikovsky, Rachmanninoff, Beethoven, Schumann concertos.
It seems somewhat close to "Griegerian" or even "Rachmaninoffian" , as far as a piano concert is duly considered. Good, no doubt.
It reminds me of the Greig Concerto
favorite part 4:52 - 5:00
It has an aura dat one has to grasp beyond reach to be fully revealing...
WALK DOWN! WALK DOWN!
RIP brotha
Who?
in final tremolo helicopter lmao 🥵🥵
Were MacDowell and Grieg friends or something?
Grieg was the first person that came to my mind.
@@joelin5887 Dvorak came into my head.
Is it possible, Mr. Dvorak, that , during your stay in New York, you came across the score of this piano concerto by a young American unknown to you, and borrowed the theme for your New World Symphony just here 21:19 ?
It’s possible but doubtful. I just fail to see the point of people who come in to UA-cam comments and write things like this. You note every passing similarity like you’re doing some kind of musicological work. That tune can probably be found in 50 different places both before and after Dvorak just by plain coincidence.
Un compositeur Américain trop peu connu en France, c'est fort dommage.
Tout à fait d'accord 🙂
7:10
For all the people noting the similarities between the form of this concerto and Grieg’s: No shit. You haven’t discovered anything important.
It is too obvious to mention. That simple.
Is this the MacDowell Piano concerto Rachmaninoff attended and badly criticized as poorly structured?
Even Maestro Rachmaninov had his off-days, he was human after all.
It's an interesting criticism, and one that I can somewhat agree with. Cohesion of ideas seems lacking, but the thing was put together mostly in a week so...
Hope Sergi never had to review Dvorak.
Thumbnail
6:18
What sort of masochist puts the piano part underneath the accompaniment
Masochist? What an unfortunate wording. It was habit in some places in those days. There are scores where the piano is below the whole orchestra.
@@bartjebartmans What do you guys mean by "underneath the orchestra"? As in the dynamics of the orchestra are written as being louder than the piano during sections where the orchestra has the accompaniment role? That's my only guess.
still cant believe that music has evolved to the shitstorm that is contemporary classical
And I, sir, can't believe that discourse on such platform as UA-cam should have to suffer from the likes of you and unfortunately others
I myself find a lot of contemporary music rather empty. I have no problem with atonalism, as works such as Schoenberg's Survivor from Warsaw strike me as as chilling and most of all expressionist. Serialism requires great craftsmanship to pull off, a lot of modern music seems to go out of its way to be "original" and "new". Not everyone's a Webern or a Boulez
Perhaps unfortunately, but not for me, I quite dislike Webern or Boulez, but I really like MacDowell, although not as if I believed that the Liszt 2nd or Rachmaninoff 3rd means less (see Hose M Solis above) - I can enjoy all of these and a lot more. But not modern "classical", which hits me like a complete contradiction, efforts by mathematicians to counteract contemporary beat, rock or pop music, but completely fails because audiences of the latter absolutely abhor it (don't even try anything like it), and even most of those who listen to classical can't enjoy these 'moderns' for longer than a few seconds.
@@rsjmd Obviously you should go away then so as not to be bothered sir.
Unlike Liszt's second or Rachmaninov's third, this concerto actually means something...
Quite strange indeed... this is a superior work...
Why?
Rach 3 has no depth, no meaning, no soul? I doubt anyone would agree with you...
But it "sounds good.." you know, disruptive. Trying to be different. ... though I am not crazy about Liszt's second.
other then it's opening theme,agree about the liszt 2nd,and therefor find this a better work.certainly don't agree about the Rach third.Macdowell just missed out on not quite having the melodic big tune and original gift of the heavyweights,but his two concertos certainly make the top of the 2nd tier Grade of piano concertos.Along with Amy Beach's Concerto,the best American piano concertos before Gershwin's.Virgil Thompson thought highly of MacDowell,and esteemed him the best 19th Century American Composer.