This concerto was the result of a fib that MacDowell told his teacher at the Frankfurt Hochschule, Joseph Joachim Raff. Raff paid a visit to MacDowell's room one Sunday and casually asked his American pupil what he'd been working on. MacDowell, who hadn't been working on anything, blurted out "a piano concerto". Raff asked to see it the following week. MacDowell, worked frantically on it all week, only to find that the next Sunday Raff had other matters to attend to. The meeting was postponed for another few days, giving MacDowell time to complete the concerto, which was dedicated to Franz Liszt and successfully premiered in 1882. His teacher Raff died later that year.
Raff: So, what piece are you working on Mr. MacDowell? Eddy:. Well, I'm, um, thinking a piano concerto. Raff: Wonderful! Can I have it by Sunday? Eddy:. Well um, sure. Do you mean this Sunday or next?
Fine concerto. I remember performing the second concerto many times in my younger days. Unfortunately, nowadays both of MacDowell’s concerti are almost completely absent from the concert stage.
Unfortunately in these bitter days trash is glorified while beauty & bounty in everything appear to be the opposite of the propaganda where everthing horrible is defined as beautiful in neo-Orwellian fashion, which in music leads to total condemnation of the individual. By tbe way this kind of artistic freedom & sense of beauty in music is not so challenged outside the US. We are now here the depository of all the feces & urine from the world. But Edward MacDowell's brilliant piano concertos illustrate my thesis. They are too beautiful & perfect, therefore ignored. Woe to the US for ignoring our musical geniuses!
@@ripvanwinkle9592 Obviously you have been asleep for too long, Rip. Your nostalgia has gotten the better of you, and you aren't trying too hard to find beauty and bounty these days. I suppose it's easier to sit at home a gnash your teeth. MacDowell is my favorite old US composer, and this particular throw-off is a weak and unconsidered effort. The best part is the opening, and some of the lyrical passages along the way. Other than that, too much bravura or a simple lack of care given (given the short time scale of its composition). There are much better works by MacDowell than this. One would do better to program Vine's sonata than this, if you aren't going to go with something else by MacDowell. Indubitably, in every age all media is mediocre most of the time. This concerto is a big fish in a little pond. Don't go to the wall for this one much less use it as an occasion for denouncing youthful vacuity now with youthful vacuity from back then. Obviously, too much "classical" music is now finding no home except in movie scores. I personally find that a prostitution of music, but we do live in three centuries of avid prostitution.
It's a beautiful work. The Finale seems to be a tad Grieg like in its structure however, only a nerd would notice :-) . It a brilliant work, should be played more.
Indeed, although I have heard the 2nd piano concerto, (but only on You Tube, never in performance or on the radio), I do believe this is the first time I have heard his 1st piano concerto. And a delight it is.
it is nice... and NOT tooooo "dated"... I think it holds up rather well... I might even like it better the Second... which I know inside out! (having played it)
Like other disciplines, the music world has blinders on. Presuppositions prevails as to what constitutes wonderful music. Those of us who push past those presuppositions are finding so many of these terrific works that we can't remember them all. This in itself makes it hard for a work to highly regarded. The other amazing works swallow each other up maintaining the the obscurity. It also perpetuates the myths that the most visible works are really the most excellent. Maybe so, maybe not. Myself, I have listened to this work many times over the years. Each time, I enjoy. If Rachmaninoff had poor regard for it as indicated below he was really listening, but let his presuppositions stand in the way.
I recognize both the structural superiority of the d minor concerto, and of course, it's greater popularity, but I must say, for something dashed off to appease a stern teacher, I find this concerto quite appealing.
Amazing!!!! I wanna learn this piece. I played Khachaturian piano concerto 1st movement in college, but would have played this if given the option back then!
You know how this concerto will be the new favorite concerto for most pianists? It has to be featured in a great movie in the whole movie. Like Rach 3 in the movie "Shine" or Prokofiev in "the competition with Richard Dryfus". Untill then it will be nearly impossible to make McDowell piano works to get well known.
It's an interesting criticism, and one that I can somewhat agree with. Cohesion of ideas seems lacking, but the thing was put together mostly in a week so...
Your question is a good one. From the standpoint of hearing these pieces live, you're most likely out of luck. The old standards rule the concert hall because most soloists don't vary from the standard repertoire, and most music directors are hard pressed to program anything outside the warhorses for fear of losing ticket sales and backers. The exception is commissioned new works.... which most times are not worth hearing more than once. On the other side, many obscure works are and have been available as recordings. All you have to do is wader around RU-vid to find yourself drowning in riches.
Questo concerto, tutt'altro che semplice ,si muove per me sull'asse :Tchaikowsky/Rubinstein per arrivare alla radice di.... Mendelssohn. L'orchestrazione è fine e affascinante. Bravo Bartje per questo bell'inserimento e lo spartito a corredo.
Hard to believe this dates as long ago as it dies. The feelings stir the b present in me Every run sends shivers v of e ccitement into the muscles of my forearms.❤
Bartje! I thought about tagging you in a post to see if you had heard of MacDowell. I had just heard his Piano Concerto 2 for the first time. So I had to see what else he had done and saw the score. I was hoping it was one of your posts. I can't imagine how this has flown under my radar.
Is it possible, Mr. Dvorak, that , during your stay in New York, you came across the score of this piano concerto by a young American unknown to you, and borrowed the theme for your New World Symphony just here 21:19 ?
It’s possible but doubtful. I just fail to see the point of people who come in to RU-vid comments and write things like this. You note every passing similarity like you’re doing some kind of musicological work. That tune can probably be found in 50 different places both before and after Dvorak just by plain coincidence.
@@bartjebartmans What do you guys mean by "underneath the orchestra"? As in the dynamics of the orchestra are written as being louder than the piano during sections where the orchestra has the accompaniment role? That's my only guess.
I myself find a lot of contemporary music rather empty. I have no problem with atonalism, as works such as Schoenberg's Survivor from Warsaw strike me as as chilling and most of all expressionist. Serialism requires great craftsmanship to pull off, a lot of modern music seems to go out of its way to be "original" and "new". Not everyone's a Webern or a Boulez
Perhaps unfortunately, but not for me, I quite dislike Webern or Boulez, but I really like MacDowell, although not as if I believed that the Liszt 2nd or Rachmaninoff 3rd means less (see Hose M Solis above) - I can enjoy all of these and a lot more. But not modern "classical", which hits me like a complete contradiction, efforts by mathematicians to counteract contemporary beat, rock or pop music, but completely fails because audiences of the latter absolutely abhor it (don't even try anything like it), and even most of those who listen to classical can't enjoy these 'moderns' for longer than a few seconds.
other then it's opening theme,agree about the liszt 2nd,and therefor find this a better work.certainly don't agree about the Rach third.Macdowell just missed out on not quite having the melodic big tune and original gift of the heavyweights,but his two concertos certainly make the top of the 2nd tier Grade of piano concertos.Along with Amy Beach's Concerto,the best American piano concertos before Gershwin's.Virgil Thompson thought highly of MacDowell,and esteemed him the best 19th Century American Composer.
A beautiful work. It is such a shame that it not part of the regular concert repertoire. It deservers to be up there with the Tchaikovsky, Rachmanninoff, Beethoven, Schumann concertos.
