Piano Concerto No. O
First of all, the following news item:
May 31, 2006. 01:00 AM
JOHN TERAUDS
CLASSICAL MUSIC CRITIC
Like an unwanted gift, a work by one of music's great masters got shuffled from shelf to piano bench to closet for more than two centuries.
Until a Toronto pianist brought it back to life.
Monday night at Pollack Hall in downtown Montreal, that pianist — the much-admired Anton Kuerti — sat down to perform the world premiere of a piano concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven that only a few people knew existed.
The performance itself wasn't perfect, but backed up by the McGill Chamber Orchestra and its conductor Boris Brott, it did introduce us to a new and very pretty landscape in the luminous world of the great Viennese composer.
From its brisk, hunting-themed opening movement, to a slow, introspective middle, to a closing rondo fuelled by a nursery-tune theme, it was 30 minutes of aural pleasure.
The road from long-neglected manuscript to a standing ovation from the crowd at Pollack Hall was not straight or easy.
Wars, revolutions, natural disaster and plain-old human forgetfulness have cost us hundreds of compositions from the old masters. Often, the experts have to fill in blanks when tattered manuscripts are discovered.
What we heard Monday night was equal parts Beethoven and Kuerti, a frequent performer of the Viennese composer's 32 piano sonatas and five previously known piano concertos.
In an interview at his Toronto home last week, Kuerti explained that he had known about this neglected concerto for a long time.
Composed when Beethoven was 14, in 1784, it pre-dates Beethoven's other works for piano and orchestra. Kuerti has named it Concerto No. 0.
It is in the key of E-flat major, and the original manuscript is useless, because it only contains a piano part.
When the orchestra is playing, that's what the piano part shows. But when a piano solo comes in, the orchestra portion disappears.
German musicologist Willy Hess reconstructed the work in 1940, and it was performed by Edwin Fischer soon afterward. But few people liked the result.
Kuerti tried Hess's score 20 years ago. "I thought it was very poor," he said. So he vowed to create his own version one day.
During the interview, Kuerti laid out his computer-printed manuscript alongside the Beethoven original (published by the German firm Schott) on his coffee table.
"I found myself with some free time in December, so I decided to sit down and write the piece," the pianist said. He figured he spent about 100 hours on the orchestration.
"Most musicologists regard it as a curiosity, but I think there is a lot of value in the piece," he said.
"The slow movement is so beautiful, and the piano part is so much more ornamental than we are accustomed to in Beethoven."
Kuerti created parts for violin, viola, cello, double bass, oboe, bassoon, horn — and flute. Despite being an instrument Beethoven didn't like, he mentions a flute in the manuscript. And it is central to the new score.
Kuerti thought it would make a nice companion for all the "florid passages."
The phone rang and Kuerti excused himself. One couldn't help overhearing the conversation, which was about Concerto No. 0.
"Some of what you criticized is by Beethoven himself," said Kuerti.
The caller turned out to be to his son Julian, a promising young orchestra conductor.
The half-overheard exchange exposed the landmine all musical archeologists must face.
As in the visual arts, authenticity is everything. And while the concerto's original outline is true Beethoven, the final product is also Kuerti's.
Some of it is all Kuerti, like the three cadenzas (solo passages that show off the performer's technique) and the final measures that smooth out Beethoven's abrupt ending.
But for the listener, it may be less about authenticity than about the final sound. And here, Kuerti has done magnificently, leading the audience effortlessly into the limpid sounds of the late 18th century. After all, the piece was written just three years after Mozart died.
For Kuerti, this was a labour of love. Surprisingly, for a subject as renowned as Beethoven, the pianist has made no arrangements to record the work or to have it published.
Fortunately, people in southern Ontario will be able to hear a live performance soon.
On July 7 and 8, Kuerti and Brott will team up on all six of Beethoven's piano concertos as part of the Brott Summer Festival lineup at the Dofasco Centre for the Arts in Hamilton.
End of news item.
_______________________________________
I am still confused by this work. I have two different versions of the Willy Hess reconstruction and I have always been under the impression that, in the original manuscript, as well as the piano solo part, the orchestral tuttis were written down as well - for piano. If that is so, then the "reconstruction" is mostly an arrangement - or "disarrangement" of the piano reductions back into orchestral passages. I hope this makes sense and if so, does anybody know actually how much of the Concerto survives?
And where is it stated that Beethoven disliked the flute? Is Kuerti thinking of Mozart?
Michael
[This message has been edited by Michael (edited 05-31-2006).]
May 31, 2006. 01:00 AM
JOHN TERAUDS
CLASSICAL MUSIC CRITIC
Like an unwanted gift, a work by one of music's great masters got shuffled from shelf to piano bench to closet for more than two centuries.
Until a Toronto pianist brought it back to life.
Monday night at Pollack Hall in downtown Montreal, that pianist — the much-admired Anton Kuerti — sat down to perform the world premiere of a piano concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven that only a few people knew existed.
The performance itself wasn't perfect, but backed up by the McGill Chamber Orchestra and its conductor Boris Brott, it did introduce us to a new and very pretty landscape in the luminous world of the great Viennese composer.
From its brisk, hunting-themed opening movement, to a slow, introspective middle, to a closing rondo fuelled by a nursery-tune theme, it was 30 minutes of aural pleasure.
The road from long-neglected manuscript to a standing ovation from the crowd at Pollack Hall was not straight or easy.
Wars, revolutions, natural disaster and plain-old human forgetfulness have cost us hundreds of compositions from the old masters. Often, the experts have to fill in blanks when tattered manuscripts are discovered.
What we heard Monday night was equal parts Beethoven and Kuerti, a frequent performer of the Viennese composer's 32 piano sonatas and five previously known piano concertos.
In an interview at his Toronto home last week, Kuerti explained that he had known about this neglected concerto for a long time.
Composed when Beethoven was 14, in 1784, it pre-dates Beethoven's other works for piano and orchestra. Kuerti has named it Concerto No. 0.
It is in the key of E-flat major, and the original manuscript is useless, because it only contains a piano part.
When the orchestra is playing, that's what the piano part shows. But when a piano solo comes in, the orchestra portion disappears.
German musicologist Willy Hess reconstructed the work in 1940, and it was performed by Edwin Fischer soon afterward. But few people liked the result.
Kuerti tried Hess's score 20 years ago. "I thought it was very poor," he said. So he vowed to create his own version one day.
During the interview, Kuerti laid out his computer-printed manuscript alongside the Beethoven original (published by the German firm Schott) on his coffee table.
"I found myself with some free time in December, so I decided to sit down and write the piece," the pianist said. He figured he spent about 100 hours on the orchestration.
"Most musicologists regard it as a curiosity, but I think there is a lot of value in the piece," he said.
"The slow movement is so beautiful, and the piano part is so much more ornamental than we are accustomed to in Beethoven."
Kuerti created parts for violin, viola, cello, double bass, oboe, bassoon, horn — and flute. Despite being an instrument Beethoven didn't like, he mentions a flute in the manuscript. And it is central to the new score.
Kuerti thought it would make a nice companion for all the "florid passages."
The phone rang and Kuerti excused himself. One couldn't help overhearing the conversation, which was about Concerto No. 0.
"Some of what you criticized is by Beethoven himself," said Kuerti.
The caller turned out to be to his son Julian, a promising young orchestra conductor.
The half-overheard exchange exposed the landmine all musical archeologists must face.
As in the visual arts, authenticity is everything. And while the concerto's original outline is true Beethoven, the final product is also Kuerti's.
Some of it is all Kuerti, like the three cadenzas (solo passages that show off the performer's technique) and the final measures that smooth out Beethoven's abrupt ending.
But for the listener, it may be less about authenticity than about the final sound. And here, Kuerti has done magnificently, leading the audience effortlessly into the limpid sounds of the late 18th century. After all, the piece was written just three years after Mozart died.
For Kuerti, this was a labour of love. Surprisingly, for a subject as renowned as Beethoven, the pianist has made no arrangements to record the work or to have it published.
Fortunately, people in southern Ontario will be able to hear a live performance soon.
On July 7 and 8, Kuerti and Brott will team up on all six of Beethoven's piano concertos as part of the Brott Summer Festival lineup at the Dofasco Centre for the Arts in Hamilton.
End of news item.
_______________________________________
I am still confused by this work. I have two different versions of the Willy Hess reconstruction and I have always been under the impression that, in the original manuscript, as well as the piano solo part, the orchestral tuttis were written down as well - for piano. If that is so, then the "reconstruction" is mostly an arrangement - or "disarrangement" of the piano reductions back into orchestral passages. I hope this makes sense and if so, does anybody know actually how much of the Concerto survives?
And where is it stated that Beethoven disliked the flute? Is Kuerti thinking of Mozart?
Michael
[This message has been edited by Michael (edited 05-31-2006).]
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