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Of all the competitions for which I accompany, one that I most enjoy is the UC Berkeley Concerto Competition which is held for UC Berkeley students only, once a year, usually in November. This year, I accompanied a couple of flutists, one playing the Hue Fantaisie, and the other playing the Nielsen Concerto. The Hue is one of those pieces written as a competition vehicle for students at the Paris Conservatory. It's also a lush, beautiful piece which tests various techniques in the flutist's arsenal - it's actually one of my favorite pieces to play with flute players, especially considering that the piano reduction is not that hard to play.
As for the Nielsen, the piano reduction is godawful in its awkwardness, and it therefore required a lot of "woodshed" solo practice time on my part. (I hadn't played it in decades.) As I was practicing, my wife was working in the other room, and every so often, she would comment, "God - that's a stupid sounding piece!" And I must say, I don't disagree with her. Like the Sixth Symphony, it comes from Nielsen's "late" period, when he seemed to flit from one little trivial idea (or fragment of an idea) to another. For some reason, flute players seem to love this concerto, which is also notoriously difficult for them too (not to mention very intricate in its ensemble demands).
Although the UC Berkeley competition is open to the public, only a couple hundred people usually show up (partially because the performances are rarely complete, since the judges often stop competitors in the middle and make them skip ahead to later sections, because of time slot restrictions), and this year, they held the competition in Zellerbach Hall (rather than the smaller Hertz Hall), which seats over 2,000 and has that notorious "Constellation" virtual reality sound sytem that I railed against a couple of years ago here on AA. The girl that played the Hue Fantaisie was the first to play, and as we got to the stage, I heard one of the stagehands asking another, "Are we going to turn on Constellation tonight?". The other guy replied, "No!". "Thank God!", I said - and one of the stage hands kind of laughed. This was the first time I had played on the stage of Zellerbach, and I didn't have any sense of what the balance was like out where the audience was sitting.
I just got the results back today: the girl who played the Nielsen tied for first place, so I guess SOMEBODY likes that concerto! ;-)
Last weekend I also accompanied a violist in another (local orchestra) competition. This was a high-school girl who played the Viola Concerto in G minor by Cecil Forsyth (first movement), written in 1905. The piano reduction for this concerto was done by John Ireland, actually a better known composer than Forsyth. In any case, I thought this was not a bad piece at all, and there are a couple of different recordings of it. It might be worth your time if you like out of the way, late romantic repertoire. The girl who played the Forsyth Concerto also tied for first in that competition, so I say good for the judges in rewarding selections of unusual repertoire!
Tomorrow's another day and another competition.
Follow Ups:
Yes, kudos to Chris for learning that! Now I am wondering if I had known you when I lived out there, if I could have convinced you to learn the reduction of the Hindemith Horn Concerto, which is perhaps the most difficult of all piano reductions, according to many pianists. My own girlfriend at the time refused to learn it, though she could have, being a concert pianist. She really was too busy. I did convince the late Kristin Pankonin to learn it (did you know her, Chris?); however she got carpal tunnel and we had to cancel it from that recital, and I never did get to do it. Since then I have never asked anyone to learn it, despite it's being a really great concerto for my particular abilities. I get very few and far between opportunities to recital nowadays, anyway.
I have to admit that I've never heard the Hindemith Horn Concerto. (I just played the Hindemith Horn Sonata about a month and a half ago however.) From what you say, I'm kind of hoping I never run into it! ;-)
(BTW, I did not know Kristin - so sorry to hear about her carpal tunnel condition.)
The Hindemith Horn Concerto was written for Dennis Brain, and really is a fine piece of music. As I said, though, it happens to be perhaps the most difficult piano reduction of them all. Brain recorded the concerto, which was performed by the Philharmonia with Hindemith himself conducting. It was paired with Hindemith's Symphonia Serena on the original LP, Angel 35491.
I'm not a great fan of flute music, but I do like Forsyth well enough. His music has always struck me as very professionally composed, solidly within the British pastoral school of its period. His Viola Concerto is an exemplary work. There's a good Hyperion disc of it coupled with Bowen's Viola Concerto, which is more adventurous in its influences.
As for Ireland, I'm not sure he is any better known these days than Forsyth. Well, maybe in the realm of chamber music, but not on orchestral programs. This is really unfortunate, because Ireland wrote some very enjoyable orchestral music. The Chandos disc collecting some of his best symphonic poems and suites is a really fine one.
It's really interesting that so many very good composers are pretty much forgotten by audiences today, and actually by orchestral musicians as well, and yet their chamber music continues to be played. The constriction of the core repertoire of orchestral music has been really disheartening. So many fine works by very good composers ignored and forgotten, while audiences are bludgeoned with repetition of warhorses.
Sorry about the rant. It's not the first time I've said it and won't be the last. hahaha
"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)
They have the Forsyth/Bowen album (that you mentioned) available as a 20-bit download (i.e., 20/44.1). There's also a note there indicating that only "a few" CD copies remain. Probably a sign of the times, although I'm not complaining. ;-)
Yeah - I agree that the Forsyth Concerto is very fine. Forsyth had never even been on my radar until I was contacted about playing the Viola concerto a couple of weeks before the competition.
I'm kind of predisposed in favor of Russian repertoire however (Shostakovich excepted!), and my favorite "unjustly neglected" little-known composer right now is R-K's son-in-law, Maximilian Steinberg. The two Neeme Jarvi DG CD's of his two symphonies (and other works) and his Passion Week choral music CD (which I posted about earlier this year) are just magnificent IMHO, and these works are so undeserving of their neglect. Liapunov's Second Symphony is another work whose neglect I just can't understand. Even better known composers, such as Glazunov, are not as well known as they should be (again, just IMHO of course).
Jarvi's on Orfeo has the most rousing finale, esp. the last pages. I like the lyrical theme in the 1st mov't as well.
I first heard the delicate theme of Kalinnikov's 1st symphony on the radio; I stayed in the car until the piece was over, just to hear who the composer was.
I've been on a mission over the last ten or so years to get every recording I can of this work, and almost everyone I've listened to is worthy, although the Rozhdestvensky set recently reissued by Melodiya seems to be afflicted with tape wow every now and then - too bad. There's also a stunningly engineered version by Sinaisky and the BBC (on their own label) which now seems to be available only via hi-rez download (24/96). (It had been free with BBC Music Magazine in its CD incarnation!)
My favorite of the ignored Russians (including Myaskovsky) is Taneyev. What wonderful chamber music he penned. And his John of Damascus is truly beautiful.Yes, Steinberg is worth hearing. Too bad DGG abandoned recording his works. I was just getting interested.
"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)
Edits: 11/08/15
The Nielsen concerto is supposed to be funny, even comical, reflecting the personality of the flutist he was writing it for. (He meant to write a concerto for each woodwind but only got to flute and clarinet).
So you need to summon your inner PDQ Bach.
Of course, there is nothing comical about how hard it is to play. The clarinet concerto too.
But kudos to you on performing piano reductions of tough 20th century concertos. IME only pro pianists very experienced in that kind of work can do it. Or are willing to.
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