One of the greatest masterpieces of the 20th Century. Martin achieves the perfect poise between octatonicism and the 12-tone technique, all grounded in tonality. A unique achievement. This is one of the most underrated composers in the 20th Century.
We played with our orchestra Pasacaglia for organ (orchestral version). I have just found out about this composer .. I started to dream about this music. It is so unbeliveable amazing for me. Now I started to search for his opus and studie it. One of the best surprises of my life was Mr. Martin. Thank you so much for this music...
A lovely performance of a great piece. I first heard/saw this at the Salle Pleyel in Paris in 1958 at a concert for the UN. I was struck by its beauty and, even though then a poor student, boought the score. It's now in shreds! Orchestra and soloists are not identified, which is too bad.
Thanks for posting this! It's an incredibly difficult piece, and certainly not one where the balances between instruments take care of themselves. Sadly, I have yet to hear a live performance of this work where I live, Washington, DC.
After just previously hearing Martin's full orchestra version, I find that I prefer this original version. It seems to fit the character of the music perfectly, and allows all parts to be clearly heard and defined. The second movement here is especially haunting. The performance sounds excellent and very enjoyable. Thanks for the upload!
Martin made the full orchestra version even before the original version had its premiere, because he thought that the unusual requirements - piano, harp & harpsichord soloists, double string orchestra - would limit its chances for performance. As he himself later admitted, the opposite was true: the original version made his name as a composer worldwide, while the version for "conventional" forces was neglected. The latter, however, remains a fascinating reworking of the original - there are now 2 versions on CD - even though I think most people would agree with you in preferring the original. :)
Joining the piano, the harp and the harpsichord is extremely difficult considering the different strengths of these instruments. Frank Martin achieved here an actual tour de force.
Considerando el exito actual de Bohemian Rhapsody, lo que deberia conducir pronto al reconocimiento de muchas otras bandas de rock progresivo, el paso siguiente para popularizar la clásica de veras deberia ser F. Martin, no?
One of the great works of the 20th century. The commission stipulated the instrumentation had to be for string instruments. This is for double string orch., piano, harpsichord, harp. Fabulous. Listen for the 12 tone row presented at the beginning and used throughout.
Among the finest recorded performances those (2 Decca releases) by Ernest Ansermet and l'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, one in mono and the other later one in stereo, stand out. Ansermet was a personal friend of Martin and championed Martin throughout his (Ansermet's) career with particular zeal.
I have the great privilege of having performed Petite Symphonie Concertante twice during my professional career, and, in addition played in an ensemble as they prepared to perform, but I was not able to play the actual performance. It was such great fun for me to play PSC. Fortunately, it is actually a not very difficult piece to play, but as @Mezzotenor (below) tells it I concur it is more difficult for the conductor to balance. The stage layout is critical to this.
+Rastattt Herzlichen Dank! Und absolut! Daher programmieren wir ihn hier in Neuchâtel so oft es geht - bei meinen Videos finden Sie ja noch einige weitere Werke, bald kommen noch mehr dazu!
well observed, Luka! Actually you can combine both manuals so that, if you play a key on the lower one, the upper one is "going with". This gives more possibilities to create different colors!
Moreover, there are several registers for the different keyboards,(just like organs) which allows to have a variety of sounds according to the combinations. Here Frank Martin's intructions regarding the registration are very precise, and he composed the harpsichord part for the Pleyel instrument.
@@fabricemartinez6538 Then why isn't such an instrument ever employed? It's the only one that is audible. Harpischordists have such a stupid bias against them. And why is the piano uncovered? Still, this is better balance than many other performances.
@@nonenoneonenonenone I had to insist to get this Pleyel. Though I'd told the orchestra producer that there was a Pleyel at the Neuchatel conservatoire, I had a Neupert at the 1st rehearsal (that did not even have the whole 5 octaves!). Also the insturment was not amplified for the concert (the microphones were just set up for the recording), I would say it's the conductor's job to get the right balance between the different sections of the orchestra. The work itself is more than well written considering the 3 solo parts, Frank Martin is here a genius. For the uncovered piano, I guess it's position (face to the conductor, between the 2 orchestras) has something to do with (and also it's easier to catch sight with the harpist). Alexander Mayer may answered better that question than me. I do regret that the Pleyel is not used (even for Poulenc's Concert Champêtre), the fact it's less brighter than a copy of a Taskin for instance might be a reason. It is not always easy to find a Pleyel in a good state (even the Geneva's Conservatoire is not well cared) and when you have one, the transport becomes (alas!) a problem (where there would be oddly none for a piano). Your question is worth to be discuss, I wish we could talk in live!
I love this piece. The conducting is pretty good. Too bad that the clavecinist begins messing up around 18mn, and then the pianist a bit later (wrong notes, off tempo, doesn't help the harpist do her part). Still, I guess the score is pretty hard for the solists.
