Piano Concerto No. O

[Michael]

Originally posted by Hofrat:
Dear Luis;

You obviously have not heard the opus 19 piano concerto with Beethoven's very corrections that were never sent to the publisher! I have a wonderful recording of Mikhail Kazakevich performing it with the corrections. It is a far better work with these corrections.


Hofrat

I have this recording also but have never been able to appreciate the "corrections" to Opus 19 and the Fourth Piano Concerto which appears on the same disc. This, of course, could be due to the fact that I have lived for years with the original versions. The alterations to Opus 19 I find quite jarring although the Opus 58 changes are subtle and mostly a matter of texture rather than content. I admit they would be of great interest to pianists and musicians but as an ordinary listener, I must say that the thought of "improving" Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto is like painting the grass green.
I prefer Barry Cooper when he is writing about music and not second-guessing Beethoven.

Michael

[Rod]

17 corrections are not going to change a bad composition into a good one. Call me Mr Crazy but I too can happily live with Nos 2 and 4 as they traditionally stand, which still seem trouble enough for performers even after 200 years.

Back to WoO4, a performance with a Stein would be the ideal solution. The modern piano is way too chunky for this music, it's like the performer is handicapped before he/she has played a note.

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"If I were but of noble birth..." - Rod Corkin

[This message has been edited by Rod (edited 06-02-2006).]

[PDG]

Originally posted by Michael:
I like the piece very much and, without wishing to lower the nice academic tone of this thread, I wish to state here and now my conviction that the theme of the last movement was used in the 1950's film musical, "Calamity Jane".

Michael

[/B]

It may be seen as Calamitous that I cannot detect a coda in the 3rd movement? How sure can we be that Beethoven's piano sketches, at least, are complete?