Martins Plays Ginastera

[minor9th]

Here's a video of the last two movements of Ginastera's Piano Concerto No.1 played by Joao Carlos Martins. 

[jre58591]

oh wow, thanks for posting! id love to see the rest of this. this is one of my favorite modern concertos, although i prefer ginastera's second.

EDIT: wow, i just watched it. it was such an exciting video. the way he jumped off the piano with those final clusters was so awesome! id love to play one of these concertos sometime.

[minor9th]

You're welcome. As I recall, he's leaping off the bench on the cover of the old LP--must have been his standard move!

[arensky]

Thank you, that was very cool. I thought the jumping off the bench bit would be cheesy and piss me off but it was perfectly in character with the music. 

The orchestra could have used a few more strings, but oh well. Thanks for posting this!

[jre58591]

haha wow, after watching it a few times, i noticed that he doesnt stick to the score *at all* in the 4th movt. he totally pulls a madge on those martellato runs. still, he has such a great feeling and character for it.

[minor9th]

Have you heard his old studio version? I wonder if he more closely follows the score there?

[jre58591]

i havent, but i would like to. im curious to see how he follows it there. any idea of where to get it? also, by any chance, do you know of any other recordings of the 2nd concerto besides dora de marinis? she kinda finangles her way through the 2nd also, as ive noticed with the score in front of me.

[cygnusdei]

This must be not far from world premier in terms of chronology. Won't the soloist be afraid of being disowned by the composer?

[minor9th]

i havent, but i would like to. im curious to see how he follows it there. any idea of where to get it? also, by any chance, do you know of any other recordings of the 2nd concerto besides dora de marinis? she kinda finangles her way through the 2nd also, as ive noticed with the score in front of me.

The LP was never issued on CD, so it's quite a collector's item. I own a copy. 

Hilde Somer recorded it...sounds like a bad student performance...the piece was clearly out of her reach.

[jre58591]

well, it looks like the second is in much need of a definitive performance. i would have expected that somer would do very well at this, being the dedicatée and all. but alas, i just might have to record it myself, haha.

as for the first, there is really only one recording of it that has pleased me, and thats alexander panizza's.

[minor9th]

I don't know that one, but Martins sure plays the daylights out of it on the old RCA LP. I don't have the score, so I don't know if he "cheated" in some of the more difficult passages in the Toccata Concertante movement. Whatever he is playing certainly sounds good! RCA has recently re-released some old recordings in SACD format...I pray the Ginastera is on the list of upcoming releases.

[jre58591]

i would hope that i could hear his recording some day. his tempo seemed unusually quick in this video, which might have contributed to his cheating. perhaps he takes a slower one on the recording, so he might not have to cheat. i will keep an eye out for this.