Richard Addinsell (transcribed-Erik Leidzen)-Warsaw Concerto (pf/winds)

[visitor]

here is a cool transcription of the Warsaw Concerto for Piano and Orchestra only for Piano w wind ensemble.

Few years ago when I started up with a former (then my new) teacher , I approached and asked if I could do a collaborative project on the side. Was given free reign so I got with our wind ensemble conductor and proposed this cool version especially since my wind friends hardly got to do this kind of thing  (usually only the orchestra kids got to play w/ these types of works).

So hammered it out one summer, got together for a handful of rehearsals/run through late evenings in the Fall after classes and after they did their other pieces and we had a blast. Concert day Nerves were crazy, never played for so many people but we all had a blast.

piano is a ss (US) model D (fresh restored) and short w a decent sony digi video recorder and I processed the ripped audio from the video to MP3 and squashed it so can upload as single file.

learned a lot and I took what i learned here w/ me to my solo pieces that semester and since then.  

Thanks for listening, hope you like it. (honestly i hated this recording for a couple years too but as i mentioned in other posts, these old archived pieces I swore would never see light of day have grown on me and I like a lot of what I did, and i see where i need to improve and used those spots as guides to know what to work on in the months/years since then).

 

[ronde_des_sylphes]

Ha, it's such a loveable work. Of all the "not so serious" pieces of "serious" music it must be close to my favourite. Works quite well for wind+piano, actually. You have a few issues with arpeggios technique and chordal execution in places, but it's one of these pieces which is hard to go wrong with. It's so impactful. Thanks for this, brightened up my evening. I think I should post my Geehl version now  

[visitor]

Ha, it's such a loveable work. Of all the "not so serious" pieces of "serious" music it must be close to my favourite. Works quite well for wind+piano, actually. You have a few issues with arpeggios technique and chordal execution in places, but it's one of these pieces which8 is hard to go wrong with. It's so impactful. Thanks for this, brightened up my evening. I think I should post my Geehl version now  

thanks for the kind remarks and reinforcong what i knew needed to pop more than it did that day.

i love all that war era british light music and the like. And im a sucker for smaltz, and the work gets it right. Haha

spot on w some of the arpegios, truth be told i had a 4 out of 5 chance on nailing ea one as me and my teacher made a  very late decision to change critical figerings and approaches to several places after a few reccomendations from a master class we played it in.  Percy Grainger, gawd i love his piano music but his editing of a few spots in the piece just didnt work so we took a risk and made late in game changes and for most part fixed more than it broke,  another week and they would have settled into themselves more w the new fingerings
Had not worked any rachmaninoff at all prior so was first real encounter w that type of chordal melodic writing...still working that type of stuff


the project was more diagnostic than capstone since it was at the beginning of starting again after a 5 year complete break so overall we were pleased.


pls post your solo version of it!  
thanks for your time, i ambehind on commenting on a couple of your recent uploads, sorry, been listening to them while driving...

[kawai_cs]

I can only say "Wow!" 

[briansaddleback]

.

[kawai_cs]

I know where you won't say that.

Oh really?

[briansaddleback]

.

[visitor]

I can only say "Wow!" 

"Wow" = World of warcraft? Lol

Jk seriously am just thankful you took time to listen and comment., and wow as a compliment is just as good as any remark i could hope to receive  I aim to make an impact when i play and pour my heart into something.  So your remark totally made me smile 

Thanks again!

[rachfan]

Hi visitor,

You deserve a lot of credit for coming up with the idea, seeing it through, and bringing it all to the performance.  And, it sounds great!!!  To you, albeit it a few years late, BRAVO!

When you mentioned the arpeggios, my sense is that they probably had some difficulties with them, but then it was suggested that you use new fingerings.  I think relatively few pianists could make a quick and successful change like that, and the performance date must have made it all the more iffy, with limited time to practice those to the point of making them convincing. And causing more nervousness!

Percy Grainger -- I had to smile.  He was a fine musician in his time. Altering other composers' scores was one of his activities.  That is, editing.  So you had that uncertainty as well -- yet another variable!  One time Percy Grainger visited Grieg.  Under Grainger's arm was Grieg's Piano Concerto in A. He played all his suggestions to Grieg.  Schirmer actually printed a Grieg/Grainger edition of that concerto.
 
Just about everyone loves the Warsaw Concerto.  There is a solo piano score too, but the one with orchestra is more exciting.  You and your orchestral friends all produced a fine rendition that day.  It's a wonderful event you'll never forget.   

Congratulations again.

David

[visitor]

Hi visitor,

You deserve a lot of credit for coming up with the idea, seeing it through, and bringing it all to the performance.  And, it sounds great!!!  To you, albeit it a few years late, BRAVO!

When you mentioned the arpeggios, my sense is that they probably had some difficulties with them, but then it was suggested that you use new fingerings.  I think relatively few pianists could make a quick and successful change like that, and the performance date must have made it all the more iffy, with limited time to practice those to the point of making them convincing. And causing more nervousness!

Percy Grainger -- I had to smile.  He was a fine musician in his time. Altering other composers' scores was one of his activities.  That is, editing.  So you had that uncertainty as well -- yet another variable!  One time Percy Grainger visited Grieg.  Under Grainger's arm was Grieg's Piano Concerto in A. He played all his suggestions to Grieg.  Schirmer actually printed a Grieg/Grainger edition of that concerto.
  
Just about everyone loves the Warsaw Concerto.  There is a solo piano score too, but the one with orchestra is more exciting.  You and your orchestral friends all produced a fine rendition that day.  It's a wonderful event you'll never forget.  

Congratulations again.

David

i finished reading your reply all smiles David, a most sincere and heartfelt thanks and for the nod /confidence boost of some of the apparent difficulties i had to navigate! as for 'late' to the pony show, i guess given it is my biggest project to date and was such a labor of love, I had some maturing to do internally to really hear the performance more accurately for what it was. I was so engrossed it it, lived , ate, breathed nothing but that piece for months, that i was 'deaf' to the beautiful moments captured on stage that day by the wind ensemble kids and myself. part of my overall aim of better self acceptance from a pianistic standpoint, we can be an overly self critical bunch can't we?


it was as exciting and thrilling as it was almost stomach sickening nerve wracking ha ha(i had a good handle on 'solo recital' type performances but a big crowd , bright lights, and showy piece...eeek! . But on the whole i enjoyed the entire process from concept in my mind to selling my teacher on it, to then using my preparation to help w 'selling' the wind ensemble conductor - a super cool/chill guy -  (i would practice it in the practice room outside his office so when he popped in  as the piece took shape,  we started to unpack the idea of collaborating on the project or his kid's fall concert (coincidentally the show  contained some 'favorite' Grainger works for concert band). I was heavily involved in wind ensemble in the past so i've always been a softy for this type of music.


making late in the game changes can be risky for sure, and i figured out that difficult as it may have been, it the solution fixed more pieces that it broke, then for the greater overall impact to  playing it more effectively it was worth the risk. As for Grainger's editing and layout, he was on his better behavior in my score for the most part, one of the bigger issues was his nonsensical fingering suggestions in spots, it caused 'music flow bottlenecks' and hampered my ability to shape those swells up and down the keyboard.

on the whole, i think it taught me more about myself, performing, and learning and adapting under a tight timeline w/ an unmovable performance deadline looming...all things i know i will carry w me moving forward, important lessons in addition to the great memory of the project. I know my agility and listening skills improved greatly from my time with it (as did my ability memorize the full score so as  to 'sing' or hum the  independent lines ie. orchestra part while i played my piano I/solo  along using piano II as a reference at times, you gotta have the mechanics down pat that you an adjust on the fly based on what the group does, i did in the performance, there' was one little spot where i thought we were about go get out of sync/off and i immediately adjusted to keep it all going). Lots of lessons in working w a conductor too, i think pianists get a little  confused, it's the conductor' show, we can be featured and can have some input gut we are part of a larger machine he/she is running. :-)

i think you're right about the piece, hard not to love it, i wanted to make sure it was palatable for all involved, it's a crowd pleaser and endures for a reason

Again you have my most sincere gratitude for your weighing in also,  a lot your of help and pointers/mentoring-advice you offered during my prep for it really paid off!  

PS there is a very fine performance of the solo version of the piece by our very own Ronde_des_sylphes near this post , I think you'd enjoy listening and his take on the work