 |
|
 |
|
|
Continuing our series of Mewton-Wood recordings
Notes on the recording: I encountered very few difficulties with the trasfer and remastering of this recording from a near-mint pressing of the original Concert Hall LP. XR processing helped to focus the overall sound and to pull back a certain tendency to over-brashness in the treble, as well as opening up some "air-space" in the very high treble frequencies that had previously been somewhat constricted. The addition of Ambient Stereo processing, which extracts and spreads the natural ambience contained within the recording, serves to further open the sound of the recording out and give a real sense of space around the instruments. Our sample here is the final movement from the Ambient Stereo release version.
Notes on the 24-bit download: Please see this page for test files and further information regarding this format. Although restoration work is done at a sample rate of 44.1kHz, we have upsampled the final 24-bit master to 48kHz for additional replay compatibility of our FLAC download. Our twenty-four bit FLAC downloads can be replayed in full quality using a standard DVD video player, a DVD writer and an inexpensive piece of PC software - see here for more information about replay from Video DVD discs.
Noel Mewton-Wood biographical notes from Wikipedia, links to more information
Noel Mewton-Wood (November 20, 1922 – December 5, 1953) was an Australian-born concert pianist who achieved some fame during his short life. Born in Melbourne, he studied at the Melbourne Conservatorium until the age of fourteen. After further studies at London's Royal Academy of Music, Mewton-Wood spent time with Artur Schnabel in Italy. In March 1940 he returned to London for his debut performance at Queen's Hall, performing Beethoven's third piano concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham. He later performed in France, Germany, South Africa, Poland, Turkey, and Australia. At the age of thirty-one, Mewton-Wood committed suicide by drinking prussic acid, apparently blaming himself for the death of a friend. The notes written by a friend of Mewton-Wood, John Amis, for the reissue of the Bliss Concerto recording, indicate that Mewton-Wood was gay and was depressed by the recent death of his lover. Mewton-Wood's The Times obituary of December 7, 1953 described his playing style at his debut performance:
In addition to Beethoven, Mewton-Wood's repertoire included:
He also composed chamber music, a piano concerto, ballet music, and music for the 1944 film Tawny Pippit.
Notes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noel_Mewton-Wood See also notes on Mewton-Wood at:
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 3 notes from Wikipedia
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. post. 75, proved one of the more troublesome of its composer's musical progeny. Birthed as a symphony, then discarded, it returned as a three-movement concerto, only to become a single-movement Allegro brilliante when published posthumously. Controversy remains, despite the composer's stated intentions, as to what form this concerto would have taken had Tchaikovsky lived to complete it to his satisfaction. The question is further heightened by (1) the quality of material in the two movements Tchaikovsky discarded and (2) whether this material was worth the efforts of his former student and fellow-composer Sergey Taneyev in resurrecting it after Tchaikovsky's death—albeit as a separate but related composition, under a separate opus number. Most pianists who have performed this work have played the single-movement Allegro brilliante. More recently, the three-movement version has received increased attention. The music also served as the basis for the ballet Allegro Brillante, as imagined and choreographed by George Balanchine in 1956 for the New York City Ballet.
From Symphony to Concerto Tchaikovsky's first mention of using the sketches of his abandoned Symphony in E flat as the basis for a piano concerto came early in April 1893. He began work on July 5, completing the first movement eight days later. Though he worked quickly, Tchaikovsky did not find the job a pleasant one—a note on the manuscript reads, "The end, God be thanked!" He did not score this movement until autumn. In June Tchaikovsky was in London to conduct a performance of his Fourth Symphony. There he ran into his friend, the French pianist Louis Diémer, whom he had met in Paris five years earlier during a festival of Tchaikovsky's chamber works. Diémer had performed Tchaikovsky's Concert Fantasia in G major, Op. 56, in a two-piano arrangement with the composer at the second piano. One of the major French pianists at his time, Diémer's students at the Paris Conservatoire would include such distinguished pianists and musicians as Robert Casadesus, Alfred Cortot and Vincent d'Indy. Sometime during their reaquaintance, Tchaikovsky might have mentioned the concerto upon which he had been working. Regardless, he decided to dedicate the work to Diémer. After finishing the Pathétique symphony, Tchaikovsky turned once again to the concerto, only to experience another wave of doubt. He confided to pianist Alexander Siloti, “As music it hasn’t come out badly—but it’s pretty ungrateful." He wrote to Polish pianist and composer Sigismund Stojowski on October 6, 1893, "As I wrote to you, my new Symphony is finished. I am now working on the scoring of my new (third) concerto for our dear Dièmer. When you see him, please tell him that when I proceeded to work on it, I realized that this concerto is of depressing and threatening length. Consequently I decided to leave only part one which in itself will constitute an entire concerto. The work will only improve the more since the last two parts were not worth very much." The choice of a single-movement Allegro de concert or Concertstück would have been in line with French piano-and-orchestra works of the period such as Gabriel Fauré's Ballade, César Franck's symphonic poem Les Djinns and Variations symphoniques—several of these works premiered by Diémer. There was also a growing trend toward similar works by Russian composers. This included Mili Balakirev's First Piano Concerto, Nikolai Rimski-Korsakov's sole foray in this genre, and currently lesser-known works as the Allegro de concert in A major by Felix Blumenfeld (best known today as the teacher of pianist Vladimir Horowitz) and the Fantasie russe in B minor by Eduard Nápravník. Tchaikovsky was especially fond of the Nápravník piece and even conducted it. Siloti and Taneyev also performed it. Once Tchaikovsky finished scoring the Allegro brilliante in October 1893, Tchaikovsky asked Taneyev to look it over. Taneyev, on whom Tchaikovsky relied for techhical advice pianistically, found the solo part lacking in virtuosity. Tchaikovsky had told Siloti that if Taneyev shared his low opinion of the concerto, he would destroy it. The composer did not carry out this threat, however. Tchaikovsky's brother Modest assured Siloti that while Tchaikovsky in no way questioned Taneyev’s verdict, he also had promised the concerto to Dièmer and wanted to show the score to him. In fact, on what would be his final visit to Moscow in October 1893, Tchaikovsky showed the concerto once again to Taneyev. Less than a month later, Tchaikovsky was dead. Taneyev gave the first performance of the concerto in Saint Petersburg on January 7, 1895, conducted by Eduard Nápravník.
The Concerto as it Exists Now The composer might have counted on Diémer as well as Taneyev to help decide the final form the concerto would take—whether to leave it as one movement or three—or whether the piece would make it to the concert hall. Tchaikovsky had invariably sought comments and suggestions for his concertos and concerto-like works from their intended dedicatees. The commentary Tchaikovsky received, and his reaction, may have been mixed, but his pattern of seeking such advice was consistent. Whatever information Diémer might have shared, as well as any further input from Taneyev, could have potentially reshaped or modified the piece considerably, perhaps for the better. One undebatable point that Tchaikovsky biographer David Brown and other detractors of the Third Concerto seem to evade is that the work cannot be judged as a totally finished composition. Tchaikovsky had not sent the piece to Jurgenson for publication; and even if it appeared complete enough to Taneyev to warrant publication, there is no telling how Tchaikovsky would have changed or elaborated on the music had he lived longer. Though the Third Concerto is a considerably more complete shape than the Mahler Tenth Symphony or the Bartók Viola Concerto, it really belongs in their same category of musical what-ifs and considered accordingly. Tchaikovsky might have tailored the solo part, with its myriad cascades of runs and scales throughout the work and the prominence of trills in the cadenza, especially for Diémer. Diémer was known by French audiences as "the king of the scale and the trill." One of Diémer's students, Lazare Lévy, who himself would become an influence on the French musical scene, wrote about his teacher, "The astonishing precision of his playing, his legendary trills, the sobriety of his style, made him the excellent pianist we all admired." With comments such as this in mind, it could be hard for an informed listener to hear a soloist play the Third Concerto without having its intended dedicate come to mind. As for the composition on the whole, music writer Eric Blom comments, "Except for the cadenza, the whole piece is an admirably knit symphonic first movement, and even that purely virtuosic feature, [the solo part,] inserted no doubt as an afterthought, is structurally as satisfactory as possible, though as a feat of pianistic writing it suffers from the same kind of inflation as the cadenza in the B flat minor Concerto and hastens to a climax by that kind of more and more closely telescoped thematic features which is one of Tchaikovsky's most obvious theatrical effects.." Blom concludes, "Why this concerto should never be performed passes comprehension, except perhaps that pianists feel that if they play Tchaikovsky, they must at all costs do the B flat minor over and over again. But surely anybody not wedded exclusively to that work—and monogamy is no virtue in concert-goers—would enjoy hearing No. 3 for once in a way and as a curiosity with the other two reconstructed movements, and more frequently by itself as a particularly attractive concert piece."
Notes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Concerto_No._3_(Tchaikovsky)
Tchaikovsky: Concert Fantasia notes from Wikipedia
The Concert Fantasia in G, Op. 56, for piano and orchestra, was written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky between June and October 1884. It was premiered in Moscow on 6 March [O.S. 22 February] 1885, with Sergei Taneyev as soloist and Max Erdmannsdörfer conducting. The Concert Fantasia received many performances in the first 20 years of its existence. It then disappeared from the repertoire and lay virtually unperformed for many years, but it has undergone a recent revival.
Structure This work is written in two movements and lasts approximately 30 minutes.
Tchaikovsky had voiced his dislike for the sound of piano and orchestra while writing his Second Piano Concerto with his isolating the soloist from the orchestra as much as possible. Brown notes that the middle section of the quasi Rondo of the Fantasia, written for piano solo, "was the logical goal toward which this precedent had pointed." This gives the section the appearance of a cadenza while actually being based on new material. This cadenza substitutes for the development section in sonata form.
Overview
Two works, one source Tchaikovsky returned from abroad at the beginning of March 1884, determined to spend the spring months with his sister at Kamenka. This trip was delayed by urgent modifications to his opera Mazeppa. Tchaikovsky wrote to Nadezhda von Meck from St. Petersburg on March 13, 1884, "I am feeling a surge of energy, and an impatience to set about something new " But Tchaikovsky did not manage to start any new work in Saint Petersburg. Only after arriving at Kamenka on April 12 did Tchaikovsky set to work. Tchaikovsky was uncertain initially what type of composition he would write. Captivated by the playing of the famed Liszt pupil Eugen d'Albert, who had given concerts in Moscow during the 1883/84 season, his thoughts turned to a new piano concerto. Nonetheless, he wrote in his diary for April 13, 1884, "I stopped playing around and came up with something new. Hit upon an idea for a concerto for piano, but it still sounded too poor and unoriginal". Progress, at least in the composer's view, did not improve over time. On April 17 and 18, Tchaikovsky wandered in the Trostianka woods and noted down, in his own words: "wretched ideas." In June, after completing the sketches and piano arrangement of what would become the Third Orchestral Suite while staying at Grankino, Tchaikovsky returned to composing the Concert Fantasia. He now included Contrastes, the rejected first movement of the suite, as the second movement of the Fantasia. This was surprising considering the amount of grief its writing had caused him when he originally conceived it for the Third Suite." Though Tchaikovsky apparently could not keep his hands off this music, he still harbored doubts about it. At the end of the Quasi rondo opening movement, he added an optional coda for the soloist which was both technically showy and rhetorically empty. This alternative cadenza was to be used in case Contrastes was omitted in performance.
First performance During October and November the Concert Fantasia was rapidly engraved, since it had to be ready for a concert of the Russian Musical Society in December, where Taneyev would premiere it. This performance, scheduled for December 15, 1884, was delayed owing to the indisposition of the conductor, Max Erdmannsdörfer. The concert took place on February 22, 1885 at the tenth symphony concert of the Russian Musical Society in Moscow. Taneyev was soloist, with Erdmannsdörfer conducting. Tchaikovsky, who attended the concert, wrote to Modest on February 25, "I heard a superb performance of the Fantasia by Taneyev and the orchestra, with which I was delighted. It had great success with the public." In St Petersburg, the Concert Fantasia was performed for the first time on April 4, 1886 in the tenth symphony concert of the Russian Musical Society, conducted by Hans von Bülow and with Taneyev as soloist. The Concert Fantasia was published by Jurgenson. Arrangements for four pianos and two hands were brought out in December 1884, the orchestral parts in January 1885, and the full score in March 1893. The arrangement of the Fantasia was printed with a dedication to Anna Yesipova, and the full score to Sophie Menter.
Analysis Quasi Rondo The first movement of the fantasia, Quasi Rondo, is purely decorative in form and moderately eloquent and emotional in content. This movement is not a true rondo. It tries to approximate rondo form by beginning and ending with an extensive section which could be called a principal rondo subject. However, these two statements also have a second theme. The first time this theme appears, it is in the key of the dominant; the second time, it appears in the tonic. This order of appearance is more like the two subjects in a regular sonata movement. While Quasi sonata might have proved a more fitting title, what actually mattes here is that the music is a manner of charm, elegant craftsmanship and a high entertainment value. The main theme is developed playfully, almost in the vein of a fairy-tale ballet. The solo part is written into the music so that it uses virtuosity for musical purposes without conspicuous display. With the second theme, it is the piano and not the orchestra that carries and develops it. The middle section, which begins with a long, elaborate solo passage, is episodic. It employs two new melodic ideas, expansive in themselves and even more luxuriantly developed. The orchestra stays silent during this long interlude. When it enters for the recapitulation, the music proceeds much as it did before, except for a new transition so the second subject can remain in the tonic and allow the movement to close on the tonic.
Contrastes Contrastes is both an attractive and characteristic piece — so much so that it is hard for some critics to believe Tchaikovsky did not like this piece and offered an alternative to it. Two main themes predominate, one fast, the other slow. They are shown as contrasts not just one by one in the order of sonata first and second subjects, but often simultaneously and in varying ways. The piece could be considered a classic solution in thematic telescoping. The only qualm is that the quick theme can seem to lack spontaneity, as though it had been over-engineered for its role in this movement. One important note is that the counterpoint for solo cello added to the slow tune being played by the piano is not the contrasting idea to which the title of the piece refers. It is merely an episode, Neither is the quiet melody that follows over an accompaniment embodying one of those innner pedal points which are a characteristic trick of Tchaikovsky's musical style. (The trick being mentioned is that of two alternating notes which go on for some time while the corresponding harmony changes. This happens in the finale of the Fifth Symphony.) The first hint that something in a new, quick rhythm is going to be contrasted with the slow theme is when the soloist plays rapid ascending scales to its restatement by the oboe. These develop into quicker arpeggios. Follow these is a cleverly contrived transition where the arpeggios act as though mutual friends, introducing the two different rhythmic elements to each other in a passage where these patterns not meet but overlap.
Why neglect? Tchaikovsky biographer and music writer David Brown has commented, "[The Concert Fantasia's] crippling weakness is that it contains not one really strong idea, yet its very original structure suffices to show that Tchaikovsky was concerned to fashion something more than a mere showpiece to gratify a virtuoso pianist or inflame a lionizing audience." He adds, "For all its melodic shortcomings, the Concert Fantasia has some engaging qualities and a structural freshness which should win it the occasional hearing."
Notes from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concert_Fantasia_(Tchaikovsky)
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
