![]() Listening to this piece in between some Brahms and Rachmaninoff, I have to commend Grieg’s sense of restraint. The finale starts out with bustling purpose (almost a Grieg-ian take on Mozart’s Rondo all turca maybe it’s just the A minor key) and gives way to a gorgeous lyrical theme that reappears in a grand, satisfying climax to close out the piece. I love the gentle triplet chords after the climax (17:45). Lest we forget that this is a piano concerto, the soloist stays busy with fast figurations. The Adagio, so reassuring and melancholy at the same time, gives the strings a beautiful showcase in the opening paragraph. Despite the minor key, I always envision the composer smiling at his creation. The themes instantly find a home in your brain, and they get the star treatment in the powerful cadenza, full of sly reharmonizations. But when it comes off well, it’s a delight. Some pianists have weird idiosyncrasies or make the Animato section in the first movement forceful instead of playful. Sometimes the pianist and conductor don’t agree on tempos. On the note about interpretation, I have so much trouble finding a performance of the first movement that I like. These factors have helped to keep it popular it’s a perfect first Romantic concerto to tackle. 16Įvery time I hear the Grieg concerto, I’m amazed at its clarity of vision, logical construction, and somewhat approachable difficulty that still allows lots of room for interpretation. Edvard Grieg: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. By the times it’s all over, it’s been a really absorbing journey.Ģ-Piano Reduction ( Schirmer, $14.99 Henle, $40.95) 3. At first the finale seems to be a retreat to lightness, but Brahms increasingly draws the strokes thicker, and even briefly recalls some of the first movement. Brahms may have been aware of his structural problem in trying to write a satisfying finale after three very intense, rich essays. It’s definitely a Romanic concerto! The coda, with the piano and cello gently bringing the ship into port, is so quietly triumphant. The piano briefly finds respite in a cadenza before troubled emotions bubble up again. The beautiful, wandering cello melody of the Andante later became the art song Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer. The tumultuous scherzo, which Brahms described cheekily as “a little wisp of a scherzo,” lands like a meteor, making enough of a dramatic impact that you almost forget what came before. ![]() Its return around 12:46 is a magical moment. That opening horn call somehow creates a mood of nobility that never dissipates, despite its simplicity as a gesture. Athletic jumps across the range of the keyboard are also a trademark of the solo material. I love Brahms’ embrace of the piano’s massiveness, as the soloist hurls blocks of material in spots like the opening cadenza and the one around 7:15. 83Īt nearly an hour in duration, this grand, magisterial concerto often feels like a symphony for piano and orchestra, with a highly developed orchestral part and a sense of epic scale. Overall, it’s a consistent delight, cleverly orchestrated, and shows a skill for variation form coming right after his Corelli Variations, Op. 19-24, which form a sort of finale, have some of the craziest piano pyrotechnics of the piece. After that oasis, there’s nothing left to do but gallop to the finish. Indeed, in a piece built so much on skittering, skeletal textures, this feels like the richest, most red-blooded human moment. ![]() The transformed theme never loses its haunting poetry. And then it finally comes to land in D-flat major. 17 is like searching your way through a cave, finding strange new chambers at every turn. I love the plaintive violin solo that comes to the forefront in Var. First-time concert listeners probably spend the whole time waiting to hear the famous 18th, but when you’re a seasoned listener, the anticipation from Var. The momentum of the first 10 variations dies out just when you’re ready for something new, and the composer never lets the listener get lulled to sleep there’s always something new and loud and glittery waiting over the horizon. I have to commend Rachmaninoff’s sense of pace in this piece. I think I read somewhere that this was a commentary on Paganini and the myth that he made a deal with the devil. That humor may have had a morbid side, though, as in Var. As one of his last works, maybe he was finally lightening up. It shows lots of Rachmaninoff’s personally and a more of a sense of humor than I have found elsewhere. But the piece as a whole, a set of variations on Paganini’s most famous caprice, fascinates me too. Many a layperson knows the eighteenth variation from this piece, and yeah, it’s pretty amazing.
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