Poem, Fibich

[highcrappile]

 Just found this piece in one of my books, never seen or heard it before. So I'm really curious about your opinion on how it sounds. Suggestions most welcome.
 Found a few videos on youtube but they didn't make sense at all to me.
Also:
Is this a famous guy? (I did wikipedia the guy)
Opus number?

Thanks in advance
Martin

[communist]

Is this a famous guy? (I did wikipedia the guy)

He is not totally obscure but he is not that famous.

[highcrappile]

What is his most famous piece?

[communist]

Šárka and The Bride of Messina

[highcrappile]

How can I find that? (to listen to)

[communist]

If there not on YouTube you can most likely get them on CD.

[lontano]

What is his most famous piece?

The poem attached above seems to appear in numerous piano anthologies, and is about the only thing that comes to mind, personally.

[lontano]

DELETED BY POSTER

[rachfan]

Hi Martin,

I'm unfamiliar with this piece, but you seem to play it quite well.  According to Maurice Hinson's repertoire guide, this "Poem" is the most often played work of Fibich in the U.S.

David

[highcrappile]

I took to the piece in a way. So now I quite enjoy playing it. Its like an anecdote found on your travels. David you seems to me to be a very knowledgeable, if not extremely knowledgeable, person, and It pleases me very much you found me playing it quite well.

/Martin (hcp)

[lostinidlewonder]

This piece reminds me of my highschool years, a music teacher actually gave me a copy of the piece to learn. It needs more flowing tempo, at the moment there seems to be some hiccups which are meant to be rubato effects but they sound like you are hitting a bump (usually just before when LH plays their lowest bass note, sometimes you hit that bass note right on time, but then decide to pause before you strike the next chord, almost as if you where searching for the chord or sight reading it). This effect has its place, but over doing it sounds funny.

You may want to broaden the climax near the middle, think, longer notes, and bigger, you need to rethink the expression and make changes sound a little more obvious, especially the calmness and serenity that follows after middle climax.

Try not to make the LH chords  (following the low bass) sound too "choppy"  (but that could be the digital).

Not bad at all! Good work

[lontano]

Just found this piece in one of my books, never seen or heard it before. So I'm really curious about your opinion on how it sounds. Suggestions most welcome.
 Found a few videos on youtube but they didn't make sense at all to me.
Also:
Is this a famous guy? (I did wikipedia the guy)
Opus number?

Thanks in advance
Martin

Regarding Fibich, I honestly don't know any other piece of his, but he certainly did write a bit. A couple years ago I was discussing the [auto]erotic nature of Ravel's Ondine with a musically astute friend, and I found some of what he had to say quite interesting. I quote:

I never thought about it, but I agree completely that Ondine is another example of aural [in this case auto-]eroticism.  (How many piano works of that kidney are there, besides the various Tristan-related transcriptions?  Fibich wrote three or four hundred pf works mainly inspired by aspects his girl friend's sexual anatomy, but that's not really the same thing.  I suppose I should be reaching for Slonimsky's 'Sex and the Music Librarian'.) (End quote)

I just thought this was an interesting tidbit re: Fibich. And while I've read a good bit of Slonimsky, I never read 'Sex and the Music Librarian', which might have given me some more inspiration along those lines while I was a music librarian from the 1970's thru 90's! 

So, if/when you hear/play that Poem, you might let your mind wander a bit into the world that revolved around Mr Fibich (and his friend).

Wistfully,
Lontano