Aloys Schmitt (1788-1866) was a German composer, mostly known today for his fingering exercises, still frequently used in piano instruction alongside those of Hanon. Besides this one, Schmitt wrote three earlier piano concertos, as well as 2 concertinos. The first two concertos have been recorded by Howard Shelley and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra on the Hyperion label, and can be heard along with a concert rondo on this playlist: • Aloys Schmitt: Piano C...
Neither currently has scores available on IMSLP but the fourth one does, along with the second of his concertinos (though only a solo reduction on the latter).
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloys_S...
IMSLP: imslp.org/wiki/Category:Schmi...
Movements:
0:00 - I. Allegro
17:49 - II. Adagio
23:48 - III. Rondo. Allegro
You'll no doubt recognize the theme in the 2nd and 3rd movements as "God Save the King/Queen" or "America/My Country 'Tis of Thee" depending on what side of the Pond you're on, or in fact one of a surprising number of other national anthems and patriotic songs from countries both within the British Commonwealth and outside of it (Sweden, Iceland, Greece, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Hawaii, who knew?) , but given the nationality of the composer, he was likely thinking of "Heil dir im Siegerkranz" which served as the national anthem of Prussia and later the German Empire during Schmitt's lifetime. It was also used in a theme and variations by a fellow contemporary German composer you might have heard of named Ludwig van Beethoven just a few decades earlier. (This concerto was written in 1825, Beethoven's piece was 1802, but unpublished, so it might not have been widely known at the time.)
There were a few interesting challenges with transcribing this piece, as the edition of the score I was working from had a number of subtle but serious omissions:
* The horns and trumpets need to change keys a number of times in the piece - this is sometimes but not always indicated in the score, so the only way you know something is wrong is that it's pretty obvious when the loudest instruments in the orchestra are playing in the wrong key - I had to figure out both where they were supposed to change and what they needed to change to, that was fun.
* The strings are frequently instructed to play pizzicato, but often missing the corresponding "arco" instruction, so that involved some guesswork as well.
* The piano part has markings for pedal down in some places, but is completely lacking in pedal up marks.
* There are missing accidentals all over the place, I had to figure much of that out by context. I'm aware there's a few sour chords near the end of the 3rd movement. I don't know what to do about that, I just copied what's written in the score and attempted to correct what I could.
Disclaimer: Yes, it's MIDI. Obviously real musicians with real instruments would be vastly superior, but this simulated performance is better than nothing at all, which is what existed previously. My greatest wish is that these videos will inspire someone with the means to arrange a real performance and hopefully record and publish it so we can hear them in their full glory. If that someone is you, or you know of an existing recording of this, please let me know and I may add a link to this description.
26 июл 2024
