Repertoire: The BEST Dvořák Piano Concerto 

I always appreciate your advocacy for the greatness of Dvorak. You are absolutely correct that non-German composers are to this day viewed condescendingly by many music theorists and musicologists-as I experienced first hand at an unnamed school of music. As you pointed out, Brahms recognized the greatness of Dvorak. I always like to say that the four last Dvorak symphonies are at least if not even better than the four Brahms. Of course they don’t have to be in competition. The point is that Dvorak is far too often viewed condescendingly, when in fact he is one of the greatest masters of the late 19th century-his form, orchestration, melodic gift, harmonic facility, emotional range, etc. are incredible. Thank you for this talk on the piano concerto. I had previously heard tried a few recordings, so this was very helpful.

It's a marvellous concerto indeed. I learnt it as a teenager and have played concerti all my life, but sadly no one has ever asked for it! Now I am in my seventies, still playing many big concerti, but still waiting for someone to request it! Thanks for your video and support of this lovely work.

This is probably the most unjustly underrated piano concerto ever, and the version played by Jandó has been with me since the beginning (I am almost 35 now and my love for it is unwavering even after so many years). It's wonderful to see it recommended by Dave!

I always enjoy your Dvorak videos. He's such a magnificent composer. His tunes are just wonderful.

So nice to see someone draw attention to this neglected work! I've played it (twice, somehow) and sure, the piano part is a bit idiosyncratic, but I'm happy to trust that Dvořák knows what he's doing (and means what he does) and there's no denying it has a unique feel and effect. Plus, great tunes and all the rest, so what's not to love?

What a wonderful video! For decades I've bypassed the Dvorak Piano Concerto. No more! I'm listening now and entranced! It's terrific for all the reasons you say. Thanks so much.

Truly my favorite piano concerto. Edit: Truly my favorite piano concerto IN THE MAINSTREAM REPERTOIRE. I wish I had with whom to share my love and enthusiasm for Moscheles’ seventh piano concerto...

Excellent and compelling explanation of the work. Thank you for it. I love this sort of content of yours. Much appreciated.

That little theme you sing "Sounds like Mozart," it occurs to me, is a virtual mirror to the opening of the Haydn Piano Concerto in D (the one every kid plays) [sometimes known as Haydn Concerto No. 11, Hobnob XVIII/11 or whatever they call it nowadays.]

Dave, non seulement vous êtes un critique accompli, mais un musicologue hors pair ❗ De l'âge de 25 ans à 45 ans, j'ai été abonné à une revue de critique française "Diapason", mais maintenant c'est vous qui remplacez, dans mon cœur, cette revue, avec votre jovialité et bienveillance 👍. Gratitude 🙏

This is great ❤ Thank you so much for the hard work 😊 Nobody talks about this concerto 😢 It is so underrated

Dave, love the review as always. Your ability to deliver these heavily nuanced talks without notes or prompter is astounding! I have the Naxos cd of this very underrated concerto and absolutely love it; it hooks you right out of the gate. The concerto somehow reminds me of the Brahms second, particularly the second half of Dvorak's first movement. Like you, I love almost everything Dvorak wrote. As Jackee Mason said of pringles, "You don't have to 'develop' a taste for it, because it's good!" It's the same with Dvorak, whose stunningly melodious music just finds its way into your heart naturally.

I loooooooove this concerto. I think another reason for the piece’s unpopularity is the juxtaposition of the pianist and the orchestra (primarily in the first movement). Forgetting the “awkwardness” or difficulty it seems to me that the soloist isn’t put in a theatrical/protagonist light as was the case of most other Romantic concertos (and who cares!). But the thematic material is so freaking beautiful. The way he spins out such lovely melodies one after the other, builds tension in his structure (especially into the first movement recap!!!), creates texture by using the solo part in an additive fashion to the orchestra, I just love it...

I loved the Dvorak Piano Concerto the first time I heard it (which was not all that long ago) and I’m glad pianists and concert programmers are increasingly aware of the piece’s many virtues. The idiosyncrasies are why I enjoy it - it doesn’t really sound like any other piano concerto I’m aware of, although if it does sound like anyone, Mozart would be the guy much more than Brahms. I imprinted on the Richter recording which is enchanting, right on the heels of listening to Richter’s recording of the equally lovely Rimsky-Korsakov Concerto. I’ll give the Naxos/Wit/Jandó disc a listen, since the clip was very well done and I really dig The Water Goblin.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard has also made an excellent recording of Dvorak's piano concerto. His performance of the 2nd movement is especially lovely.

Dave, I'm another person who blew this music off-- it went completely over my head, no idea of what was going on. After listening to your talk, I dug out Aimard's recording and thought it was the most original , beautiful thing I had ever heard. You're opening up whole new worlds for us! Thanks.

Thank you Dave for your zealous advocacy of Dvorak, I'm sure he would be proud.

I learn so much !!!!

Love the Dvorak Piano Concerto! Especially the downward scale passage in the middle of the first movement. Actually it goes down but ascends to the next tone/chord and just builds with intensity. Such emotion and Czech spirit felt throughout. As David said, the Naxos version is excellent and a great alternative if you find others to be too pricey.

Thank you! A great talk about this most marvelous concerto, so illuminating and interesting.

I give Dvorak full credit writing, for example, two of the finest symphonies of the Romantic era, nos. 7 & 8 and two of the finest symphonic poems, The Noonday Witch and the Water Goblin. Great composer by any standards.

Primakov is WONDERFUL! Thank you for the suggestion - I did not even know it existed.

One of yours top videos. I learnt a lot. A personal note, in the 90s in Brazil there was a few record stores with classical music cds. Everything imported and very expensive, like twice the price in Europe or more. And we buy what they offered and most recording were not available for long. Richter version i bought from a street vendor! They do not usually sell neither classical neither imported cds, but I remember saw this one downtown, and bought it without any information about it. Now I know everything I need to know.

Hands held up, I admit that I’ve always had difficulty getting on board with his piano concerto…but after listening to your insights and explanation of its structure, I’m looking forward to revisiting it, from a new and more informed mindset. Many thanks for the education, as always! Your channel is a beacon amongst all the turgid banality! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Thank you for this survey of a truly lovely work. Love the Yiddish!

I'm delighted to hear of your love for this, the most neglected of Dvořák's mature concerti. I first learned of it through the Friedrich Wührer recording with Rudolf Moralt and the Vienna Symphony on Vox. Of course, it's the Kurz text, and it's almost too bad you ruled Kurz out completely, because Rudolf Firkušný's first recording, which uses it, was with Szell and the New York Philharmonic for Columbia! I recall that Rudolf Firkušný made the transition from Kurz to the original; the Westminster (with Somogyi) and the Vox (with Susskind) were mongrel editions, as was the live performance with Cantelli and New York.

Thanks, David, I loved the way you stood up for the concerto and I certainly learnt a lot about it from your talk. I do have the Richter/Kleiber recording but have nevr foun ot partivularly interesting so I think it's time I listened to some of your other recommendations, particularly the Firkušný (whom I also have plying three of the Martinu Concerti with LIbor Pecek and the Czech PO)

This talk has made me reconsider this concerto. Thanks. Could never be an official recommendation but for sheer recklessness Richter/LSO /Kondrashin are worth hearing in the finale as they dispatch it in slightly less than ten minutes.

What an excellent tribute to a neglected work. Another concerto comes to my mind in relation to this one... Scriabin's! Maybe a talk someday? Thanks for all the richness your channel provides to classical music lovers.

Thank you an excellent video, it's made me revise my opinion of the work. Any chance of you doing a video on the symphonic poems?

For those who have the SZELL box, Firkusny recorded it with Szell in the fifties. The sound is excellent mono, and the performance is wonderful.....revised version.

My first recording was the old Vanguard with Firkusny, who did a mashup of the original and Kurz editions. He eventually went on the use the original exclusively, I understand. When I replaced it, it was with Franz/Bernstein (after having met Franz in Osaka, where he played the Schumann in 1976).

Had to revisit these after your review of Firkusny. Since you ask, 18:10 reminds me strongly of the cancan from La boutique fantasque, which would make it Rossini I guess.

Very good video! As a czech pianist who played this piece (Dvořak´s piano part), allow me to share my experience. To be honest, I simply like the concerto, but I never adored it. For the pianist, it is a fingerbreaking piece although it may not sound like it from the recordings. I have played all Bartok´s piano concertos, Prokofiev´s Second, but I still consider Dvořak´s as the most difficult. There are some really beautiful sequences - I love the second movement the most, other movements are strongly influenced by Beethoven Fourth concerto - he cannot deny it. However, the concerto has some problems. When you hear it live at the concert, Dvořak´s piano part really does not sound that good and effective as it sounds on the recordings. It is a tremendous difference and many of my coleagues and professors agree, that for the concerts and live playing - they prefer Kurz´s part, or some of the pianists make their own mix between Dvořak and Kurz. For the recordings it is of course much easier balancing the orchestra and the soloist. Many pianists simply think, that this concerto means a lot of hard work - for nothing. Even though they like the piece, they just refuse to spend so much time to learn such ungrateful work. During my learning of this piece, I often asked myself, if it even made sense to continue. When I played the Dvořak´s piano part with orchestra, it was really a struggle, because the part is risky and unforgiving, but for the audience - it sounds easy. I have to admit that there are even some nonsense in Dvořák´s piano part - for example at the end, the last thrill in the concerto - he writes there a double-sixth thrill in both hands - which is physically impossible to play and nobody plays it that way. Overall, it is a beautiful piece and should be played more, on the other hand - from my experience I can understand why many pianists hate it to play it. And from Dvořak´s letters we know he admitted, that he was not able to play it himself (even though he was a good pianist, but not a virtuoso) and was never fully convinced about quality of this piece.

When I got into Dvorak I got my hands on everything I could find. But when I heard his piano Concerto I wasn’t so moved. Probably because my standards for piano concertos were based on Rachmaninov and Brahms and Tchaikovsky. But now, David, I think maybe I didn’t hear Dvorak but that other guy’s messing with it. Perhaps.

So glad you did this! I just read your review of the Kahanek recording today and was happy to see the last Firkusny as the reference recording. That’s my favorite also and the coupling for my money has the best Janacek concerted piano performances. I have Richter, too, but listen to that disc for the Schubert Wanderer Fantasy with which it is coupled.

Do you know Richter/ Svetlanov performance? The sound, like some of that old russian's recordings, are not good, but the interpretation is so better that Richter/Kleiber... I have read that Richter said about his second recording that, in the time of that recording, also himself and Kleiber are not in their best form...

Peripheral to the main point of this review, but it is highly tempting to nominate the various small concertmaster solos in "The Golden Spinning Wheel" for inclusion in the "World's Greatest Melodies" compilation(s). Absolutely exquisite... I.V. will likely in the end select something from the denizen of St. Florian--- the second presentation of the B subject from the slow movement of the mighty #5 in Bb+ readily comes to mind--- but the G.S.W. tunes come awfully close...

Smetana's Bartered Bride is also in the Mozartian line in so many ways. M of F, but also Die Z. Dv seems to me to be closely influenced by Haydn and Schubert, more perhaps than Brahms. His melodic inventiveness, for instance, and love of dance and folk music....

I bought a Schwann LP (in the sales) about 43 years ago (when I was 14) of the Dvorak concerto . It was a Justus Frantz/Helmut Müller-Brühl recording. Not the greatest of recordings I think, but I liked the music.

What do you think about the Firkusny/Kubelik recording?

Oddly, during the excerpts I was getting flashes of Saint-Saens! Albeit S-S played rather slowly.

Speaking of the Dvorak tone poems, your humble gadfly thinks it is LONG overdue for Master Critic Dave to review the COMPLETE late tone poems [opus 107, 108, 109, 110, and 111]. Then once you are finished with that, the orchestral excerpts from all his operas. Or do those even exist? That also begs the question of why his operas are not being done anywhere, it seems, except perhaps in his native Bohemia or in Czechia. More information about those operas would be appreciated as well, thank you...

I think this concerto is in the top 10 of hardest piano concertos ever written !! What is your opinion ? Please reply 🙏😊

David, I'd like to know what do you think about the Ohlsson-Belohlavek-Czech Philharmonic recording in Decca. Indeed, I was thinking of buying the Decca Belohlavek box with all Dvorak's symphonies and concertos. Is it recommended? Thanks!!

I’m sorry that this has nothing to do with the video, but what is in your opinion the best Mahler cycle? I want to buy a CD of a Mahler cycle, but I don’t want to buy individual CD's.

I didn't know that Brahms liked this concerto! And Brahms was correct.

You say that Dvorak couldn't have been copying Brahms because he didn't know Brahms (from you mentioning this I assume you meant that he hadn't heard Brahms performed). Do we know, however, that he was unfamiliar with Brahms scores (a serious question; I have no Idea, but have a feeling that you might)?

Very good talk as ever. One post below suggests otherwise but I've always thought that Wührer was the first recording to use the original published version. Two performances I like you didn't mention - recording for the centenary by Bruno Rigutto French Radio O / Mácal and more recent one by Piemontesi BBCSO / Bělohlávek. Very good notes for that one describing history before publication and the real original.

Isn't it great. I had one of those nocturnal experience (steady on!). I go to sleep listening to BBC Radio 3 and every so often I'm in a state of semi-consciousness when my brain follows the argument of a musical piece in the middle of the night. Dvorak's piano concerto was something that happened and I've decided to stop fannying about, worried about the amount of stuff out there, and eschew some sort of deep-seated guilt and focus on Antonin. I love Czechia having been five times as early as 1990. This is Czechia personified.

I've previously found this concerto rather aimless, unimpressive and forgettable. I'll give it another go.