Create your own piano concerto

[thebuchertrain]

If you could customize your own piano concerto with different movements (even if it doesn't work coherently as a whole piece), what would it be? For example:

My concerto:

1st movement: Concerto in F- George Gershwin (1st movement)
2nd movement: Concerto in G major- Maurice Ravel (2nd movement)
3rd movement: Concerto in D minor- Johannes Brahms (3rd movement)

Just an interesting concept (I think  ).

[john11inc]

Perfect piano concerto?

Ginastera's Piano Concerto No. 2 without the 3rd movement.

[retrouvailles]

Perfect piano concerto?

Ginastera's Piano Concerto No. 2 without the 3rd movement.

No, just no. I happen to love the third movement. Remove the introduction to the finale if anything.

[perfect_pitch]

Nah - for me, the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 is already perfect enough. To me the melodies and passages connecting them seems to have the perfect cohesion, joining them all brilliantly together.

The Climax at the end of the 1st movement just rocks, same with the end of the third movement.

[john11inc]

No, just no. I happen to love the third movement. Remove the introduction to the finale if anything.

Yes, just yes.  The third movement is easily the weakest movement in the piece.  The 4th movement (is that what you refer to when you say the "introduction to the finale"? [also, the 4th movement is the entire cadenza]) is probably one of the most powerful segments of the work, and is a necessary one.  Removing it makes the fifth movement (is that what you mean by the "finale"?) completely ineffective.  It's the contrast from the completely atonal cadenza to the F minor of the 5th movement that makes the latter so compelling.

Also, you yourself once said that you felt the 2nd and 3rd movements were the weakest.  Or are you having some sort of confusion about the movement numberings?  Seems entirely possible.

[thalbergmad]

The Schumann concerto without the 1st, 2nd & 3rd movement.

If I did create one at the moment, it would almost certainly have some Flagello in it.

Thal

[john11inc]

The Schumann concerto without the 1st, 2nd & 3rd movement.

Just to be on the safe side, I'd also just go ahead and remove the title.  Just _________.

[orangesodaking]

Nah - for me, the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 is already perfect enough. To me the melodies and passages connecting them seems to have the perfect cohesion, joining them all brilliantly together.

The Climax at the end of the 1st movement just rocks, same with the end of the third movement.

I think you and I will get along JUST fine. What you said is the absolute truth, and I couldn't have said it any better myself, friend! 

[noambenhamou]

interesting concept. But in my opinion NO way.
Glue the front end of a honda to the back end of a BMW. Will not drive well, will not look good.
Music perhaps a bit more sensitive than cars. Glue the front of a 747 to the tail section of a Cessna 172 haha.
The composers were not stupid. With the sonata form, and 3mov of concertos they were bit stuck in the past, they were in a way "tools". But it was all there for a reason. In the correct order to tell a story. I don't know if you can do to music what they did in the movie "Pump fiction", shuffle the scenes around. The human brain cannot do this with music so easily.
The movie Memento is played backwords. Use computer software to play fantasie impromptu backwards and see how that sounds... Even in small forward sections glued together backwards.

[retrouvailles]

Yes, just yes.  The third movement is easily the weakest movement in the piece.  The 4th movement (is that what you refer to when you say the "introduction to the finale"? [also, the 4th movement is the entire cadenza]) is probably one of the most powerful segments of the work, and is a necessary one.  Removing it makes the fifth movement (is that what you mean by the "finale"?) completely ineffective.  It's the contrast from the completely atonal cadenza to the F minor of the 5th movement that makes the latter so compelling.

Also, you yourself once said that you felt the 2nd and 3rd movements were the weakest.  Or are you having some sort of confusion about the movement numberings?  Seems entirely possible.

Am I allowed to change my opinion? I find the third movement as one of the most compelling movements of the work. I guess this just proves another point: the composers knew better than we do, and the piece should just be left as is. Let's not excise anything from any works and perform them as they were written.

[djealnla]

Diz is truely ma favorite Pinocchio concern:

Alkan - Solo Concerto
Sorabji - Solo Concerto
Finnissy - Solo Concerto No. 4

[retrouvailles]

Of course, there are some early romantic piano concertos that you could mix and match up with each other and no one would know the difference. For example, mix up the Hummel and Litolff B minor concertos together and a newcomer to both would not be able to tell.

[richard black]

Diz is truely ma favorite Pinocchio concern:

Alkan - Solo Concerto
Sorabji - Solo Concerto
Finnissy - Solo Concerto No. 4

Right, now YOU play it! 

[argerichfan]

The Schumann concerto without the 1st, 2nd & 3rd movement.

You are so funny!  Meh, I'll take the Op 134. I have always loved it, there is a rather nervous feeling, Schumann on the edge of sanity. But I think it absolutely glorious in its own way.

[perfect_pitch]

I think you and I will get along JUST fine. What you said is the absolute truth, and I couldn't have said it any better myself, friend!  

Hey - Good to know. We should chat more often. Glad someone hears the same thing I do in the Brahms.

Out of curiousity - what are your thoughts on his second piano concerto?

[argerichfan]

Hey - Good to know. We should chat more often. Glad someone hears the same thing I do in the Brahms.

Out of curiousity - what are your thoughts on his second piano concerto?

Include me in this too. OSK and I have rather similar opinions about the Busoni. 

[orangesodaking]

perfect pitch (should be "absolute pitch", just kidding)

I love the 2nd concerto a whole lot, it's definitely in my top 5 but personally I prefer the first.

And yes, argerichfan and I are both fans of the Busoni piano concerto also.

And I don't know about argerichfan, but I also am in mad love with the Brahms symphonies!

[argerichfan]

And I don't know about argerichfan, but I also am in mad love with the Brahms symphonies!

Cool. But I had an 'experience'  with the Brahms Op 5. I must have been about your age (ten years ago?) , the slow movement just said everything to me as I was hopelessly in love at the time.

I shudder.  The last movement of the Schumann Fantasy says weird stuff when one is vulnerable. 

[perfect_pitch]

Damn - I've never really listened to any of Brahms Symphonies... sound intriguing.

[argerichfan]

Damn - I've never really listened to any of Brahms Symphonies... sound intriguing.

Try the 4th. 

[ongaku_oniko]

1st movement: Rachmaninoff's 3rd concerto 1st movement

2nd movement: Rachmaninoff's 2nd concerto 1st movement

3rd movement: Rachmainoff's 3rd concerto 2nd movement

4th movement: Rachmaninoff's 3rd concerto 3rd movement

This would be the absolute best concerto ever heavenly music.

[ahinton]

Alkan - Solo Concerto
Sorabji - Solo Concerto
Finnissy - Solo Concerto No. 4

I thought that the idea here was to concoct a concerto from individual movements of existing concertos rather than stringing entire concertos together; anyway, I am almost certain that only one pianist has ever played all three of these works and, enterprising and challenging though his programmes often are, I do not quite envisage him playing all of these in succession in a single recital (although he did once play the first two as a single programme with an interval between them).

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

Just to be on the safe side, I'd also just go ahead and remove the title.  Just _________.

Thal would probably want to have the composer's name removed as well.

By the way (and apologies for going temporarily off-topic), what prompted you to incorporate?

Best,

Alistair

[gep]

Diz is truely ma favorite Pinocchio concern:

Alkan - Solo Concerto
Sorabji - Solo Concerto
Finnissy - Solo Concerto No. 4

Drop the Finnissy and put the Bach Italian Concerto in front of it all. Not that I wouldn't come to a concert with the programme as proposed....

I am almost certain that only one pianist has ever played all three of these works and, enterprising and challenging though his programmes often are, I do not quite envisage him playing all of these in succession in a single recital

I dare say he could pull it off, though...

All best,
gep

[djealnla]

I do not quite envisage him [Jonathan Powell] playing all of these [the solo piano concertos of Alkan, Sorabji and Finnissy (No. 4)] in succession in a single recital

Because?

[orangesodaking]

Powell plays the Alkan Concerto for Solo Piano?

[ahinton]

Because?

...he almost certainly wouldn't want to take that many risks in so short a space of time and, had he wished to do so, he almost certainly would have done by now.

Best,

Alistair