Carl Nielsen - Chaconne, op 32

[fnork]

Well, here it is. First time on concert, from a piano festival in Trelleborg (southern sweden) in the beginning of this summer.

Video:

[rachfan]

H fnork,

Another thoughtfully and beautifully played piece, and a most interesting composition at that.  Sounds like there are some really difficult leaps in the LH, but you execute them with complete confidence.  Wonderful playing! 

[fnork]

Thanks for the comment. Beautiful music, isn't it? Nielsen is of course mainly known for his symphonies and concertos, but he did write a good amount of fantastic piano music. Leif-Ove Andsnes recorded a lot of it, and I just heard that Martin Roscoe also released a Nielsen CD recently.

Some easy Nielsen pieces that I can recommend for everyone are the "Humoreske-bagatelles", forgot opus number...Some are sightreadable - fun pieces. He wrote a great suite as well, the title is, I believe, "The luciferic", but it's rather difficult. He writes very symphonically, it actually reminds me some of Brahms, except that the tonal language is rather different.

And umm, there are some very awkward leaps indeed! ugh..I hope I will come closer to "complete confidence" next time I play the thing on concert

[fnork]

All recordings from this festival are temporarily availeble here:

https://www.kyrkan.com/tmp/pianofestival/

I especially recommend listening to Vladimir Ovchinnikovs recital, most of all his Rachmaninoff "Moment musicaux". You cannot see who plays what, but his recital is betwen track 16-25. My teachers recital is between tracks 10-15, I can most of all recommend his Schubert sonata, and also Gunnar de Frumeries 2nd piano sonata.
All other recordings are students playing - me and another of my teachers students, and two of Vladimir Ovchinnikovs students. Videos will come later

[thierry13]

Could you post the names of the players here for each tracks? I downloaded most of them, and I'd like to know who I am listening to! Even if it's only mentionning who's student it is.

[fnork]

The videos will probably come soon with all info! But a hint: almost all Rachmaninoff (except variations on a theme by corelli and moment musicaux) was played by one of Ovchinnikovs students - he went to a Rachmaninoff competition after the festival (in new orleans I believe). Well, a good hint in general is that russian music was played by his students, and other pieces mostly by me and my teachers other student...

[fnork]

Here's another Nielsen Chaconne - one week later at a chamber music festival. I also played the Medtner piano quintet on the same concert. Unfortunately with this recording, the piano wasn't as good, and in the middle of the piece you will hear some noise - the "concert hall" where we were playing was having "automatic curtains" which were taken down if there was too much sunlight. Somehow noone fixed this before the concert, and, in the middle of the Chaconne, they went down...in a very quiet part of the piece...heh.

https://www.megaupload.com/se/?d=0GUI87LM

[fnork]

Another recording from the chamber music festival, Medtner:

https://www.megaupload.com/se/?d=YLXU8R8S

[kard]

^^ The download list is a huge addition to my music library. So much good music
Would you guys say Piano Festivals are a better avenue for music exposure than recitals?

[fnork]

I know, lots of great music for just a 4-5day festival I guess festivals obviously give more exposure since there's (or there should be) a big variety in the program. Especially since there were so many different nationalities in this festival - we had three russians, a latvian pianist, my teacher who is swedish, and me who is half-swedish, half-polish. Naturally, there was lots of russian, latvian, scandinavian (or, at least swedish and danish) and polish music on the program.
Although I must say that one of the russians was just way too onesided with his repertoire - it was ONLY russian music. He was supposed to do Les Adieux but cancelled. After a while, one got bored with his Rachmaninoff and glinka/liszt-transcriptions...

[fnork]

Here's the video: