Schumann, Dvorak: Piano Concertos

On this CD:

1. Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 54
Composed by Robert Schumann
Performed by Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra with Paolo Giacometti

2. Piano Concerto in G minor, B. 63 (Op. 33)
Composed by Antonin Dvorak
Performed by Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra with Paolo Giacometti

Customer Reviews:

25 Classical Heartbreakers.......2006-11-29

Although these are popular and widely heard compositions (that's why I gave it 4 stars) they are very soothing when you want to mellow out. However, I can't understand why the title reads '20 Classical Heartbreakers' when there are 25 pieces.

Average customer rating:

Itzhak Perlman Collection

Manufacturer: EMI
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Duets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Quartets | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Trios | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Preludes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Toccatas | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00000DOKC
Release Date: 1995-01-01

Average customer rating:

Bad remasterization

Cello Concertos / Pezzo Capriccioso
Schumann , Tchaikovsky , Dvorak , and Rostropovich
Manufacturer: BBC Legends
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
Similar Items:

Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante; Miaskovsky: Cello Concerto

ASIN: B00006L3HD
Release Date: 2003-02-25

Customer Reviews:

Bad remasterization.......2003-03-23

Bad remastering

Any recording that bears Mr Rostropovich's name will make me spring to attention, but this time - sorry. Mr Rostropovich's accompanying explanation (see page 4 of the accompanying leaflet) for the cavalry-charge tempo of Dvorak's concerto (it was performed, by him and the USSR State Symphony Orchestra under Svetlanov's directorship, on the same day (August 21, 1968) as the soviet invasion of Praga) under stress for an initially hostile reception of the public, may have been a good reason on the occasion, but no longer. One has a right to value for one's money - unless the buyer is a buff who wants to have a complete collection of different recordings of the same piece - and this performance is not par with the otherwise standard of excellency of both soloist and orchestra. For instance, the poignancy of the second movement is completely lost. Hadn't I known what I was listening to, I might not have recognized the concert. The normal duration of Dvorak's concerto is, actually, 38 minutes - such as here (or so, at least, my extensive reference book about symphonic music tells me) and it's the same in another CD I have of it. The rub rather seems to lie, herein,in the re-masterization of pieces performed respectively 42 (Schumann's) and 35 (Dvorak's and Tchaikowsky's) years ago: it is simply not up to present standards. The warning that this whole CD is a remasterization of so long-past performances should have accompanied the presentation on the detail page for it in the Amazon[.com] Website where, instead, it appears as a February 2003 recording. So, it's two stars less for this reason, and the other three just as an homage to the glorious career and standing of such a soloist, an orchestra and a conductor.

"Schumann, Dvorák: Piano Concertos "
Average customer rating:

SACD Sound, Accomplished music-making by all concerned

"Schumann, Dvorák: Piano Concertos "
Schumann , Dvorak , Giacometti , and Tilken
Manufacturer: Channel Classics Nl
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Chamber Music | Forms & Genres | Classical (c.1770-1830) | Historical Periods | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Classical | Styles | Music
General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music
Classical | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B00006I61X
Release Date: 2002-12-10

Customer Reviews:

SACD Sound, Accomplished music-making by all concerned.......2004-10-09

By pairing the Schumann and Dvorak piano concertos, this disk suggests how worthy both pieces of music really are. Inexplicably, owing to Dvorak's alleged shortcomings as a pianist, his sole piano concerto has suffered from being damned by faint praise. While the cello concerto Dvorak wrote is widely acknowledged as a masterpiece of the cello literature, the piano concerto is supposedly not idiomatic enough in its keyboard writing to measure up.

Meanwhile, the Schumann piano concerto is a peak in the Romantic mountain ranges, having long since overcome its hesitant origins. The composer began with a one-movement fantasia for piano and orchestra, later completed as a full concerto. Could the fact that Schumann's work had no less a personage than Clara Schumann herself as an advocate, be part of the key to its success?

This Schumann piano concerto is not an easy work. While its keyboard writing is less flashy than, say, Liszt; its ideas, its beauty, and above all its Olympian poise present challenges. To master the notes of the Schumann is much easier technically, than to achieve the depth of song and uncanny simplicity required. When you play the Schumann, it is all too easy to fall off in one direction or another, too fast, too slow, too flashy, too prosaic and matter of fact. If the poet wins through the technician, then you are starting to grasp the music.

Paolo Giacometti rises to the challenge in the Schumann with a muscular performance that nevertheless breathes balance, poetry, and occasionally, fire. Accompanied by the Arnhem Philharmonic under leader Michael Tilkin, all concerned quickly overcome any doubts we might have about hearing this music played by even a good regional Dutch orchestra. Where we might have logically expected prosaic music-making, an account of the notes and not much more, we instead on this disc may find a flexible partnership where piano and orchestra give and take, without the whole falling into shapeless speeding and halting in a caricature of the supposed Romantic swoon. While all this comes through nicely in the regular 16-bit CD, it is even better in the SACD multi-channel edition.

Then what of the Dvorak? Here we must admit a major discovery is being restored to its rightful place in the Romantic piano concerto literature. Written some 33 years later, this concerto is simply a complete delight. Like the Schumann, it sometimes breathes a clarity whose beauty sounds too easy. The melodies far surpass even the famed Dvorak cello concerto in allure and freshness. Unless you are deaf to these melodies, they will almost single-handedly calm the dubious inherited worries about the work's merits.

From the lengthy orchestral introduction onwards, you are immediately singing and dancing in the Bohemian woods and meadows. The air is fresh, and if you aren't unconsciously taking deeper and deeper breaths, maybe you should get out into the country more often. The scoring is as colorful and commanding as any score Dvorak ever penned. The piano writing gets accused of not being idiomatic, but if a pianist takes it seriously, it is quite difficult to fault for not being more than it is. Like the Schumann, even what appears at first glance on the page in the Dvorak to be only connecting passagework may open into something else, something more meaningful and more wonderful than simply ornament. In this regard, I would argue that both composers were paying attention when Chopin showed exactly how music was done.

By the time the slow movement comes, the special genius of the Dvorak is confirmed. Still moments of haunting, ineffable beauty obtain in this slow movement. As with the Schumann, the idea is to get out of the way and let eternity shine through. The last movement is a typical rondo - dancing, dancing, dancing to the last just as effectively as the cello concerto ever did.

Again, the SACD is the recommended edition.

Three other versions compete for the Dvorak prize. Rudolf Firkusny played it frequently when nobody else was programming it. His regular CD edition is still available, re-released on a Brilliant Classics box set of all the Dvorak concertos. The Saint Louis Symphony (USA) is led by Walter Susskind. Ruggiero Ricci plays the violin concerto, and Zara Nelsova plays the cello concerto. Another performance on EMI / Angel is played by Sviatoslav Richter, the Bavarian Radio orchestra, and Carlos Kleiber (the genius father Erich Kleiber's genius son). Finally, my personal favorite: budget label Naxos offers us Jeno Jando, with the Polish Radio orchestra led by Antoni Wit. This recording is inexpensive, and it would seem the angels of music were smiling upon all the players that day in the studio. We are given one of the most superbly balanced and discerning performances available. Jeno Jando is a Hungarian pianist whose style and intelligence recalls Wilhelm Kempff. He never tries to do with pedaling what he cannot do with his fingers and upper body. The orchestra is much better than good, and its players were having a very good day, too. At the Naxos budget prices, you can afford the CD, no matter what else you may own. A very good performance of a Dvorak tone poem, the Water Goblin, is also included. Naxos has been releasing SACD, but none yet of this stellar recording. I think they are overlooking its very high merit. Whatever their marketing figures show, this single recording is my nomination for the absolute best recording that Naxos has so far given us.

Even in light of the alternatives, this disc offers us the extra value of SACD sound which is difficult to describe if you have not yet heard it. Suffice it for me to say that this recording in SACD edition, of the Schumann and Dvorak piano concertos is highly recommended then. Many thanks to everyone who made this particular disc possible, not least the musicians.

Average customer rating:

The Great Piano Concertos (Box Set)

Manufacturer: Brilliant Classics
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Compilations | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00076YP6W
Release Date: 2005-01-25

Average customer rating:

The Great Piano Concertos (Box Set)

Manufacturer: Brilliant
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0002ONB00

Average customer rating:

Schumann / Mendelssohn Piano Concertos
Schumann , Mendelssohn , Dvorak , Froment , and Rudolf Firkusny
Manufacturer: Vox (Classical)
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000001KBH
Release Date: 1996-07-09

Milestones: 6 Cello Concertos spanning 200 years

Average customer rating:

Marvellous cello concertos

Milestones: 6 Cello Concertos spanning 200 years

Manufacturer: Channel Classics Nl
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Symphonies | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

Classical | Box Sets | Stores | Music

Classical | Imports | Stores | Music
ASIN: B0000589IO
Release Date: 2001-09-11

Customer Reviews:

Marvellous cello concertos.......2005-08-28

This is a terrific set of cello recordings, with Pieter Wispelwey as the cellist. The first disc (of four) has the two famous Haydn cello concertos. We're treated to Wispelwey's fine candenzas for all three movements of the D major concerto and the first movement of the C major one. The final movement of the C major is a test for any cellist: can one play it fast and cleanly? Before I heard Wispelwey, my favorite was the recording by du Pre. But I now prefer this recording, which has an unbelievably fast tempo.

The first disc includes an unusual recording of Haydn's final symphony transcribed for flute, piano, and string quartet.

There is a fine selection of cello works on the remaining discs. The most famous ones are the cello concertos by Schumann, Dvorak, and Elgar. But there are also works by Hindemith, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Arensky, Davidov, and Lutoslawski. Throughout, Wispelwey's technique is superb, and I also enjoyed his interpretations and his very lively tempos.

I highly recommend this set of cello works.