Yikes, I've been busy! I came of retirement to help a school as a long-term sub in a middle school English class (one teacher left on medical leave, and I am filling in until the new teacher starts), plus my wife and I travelled over the weekend. Sooo....needless to say, I'm behind with things! LOL. I did listen to the Prokofiev work once last week, but I plan to listen to it a couple more times, and then I'll post my comments and rating later this week! Sorry for the delay. Stay tuned! As you know from the note above, I’ve been a bit busy! I started this site a little over two years ago when I retired (I’d been a middle school principal) but last winter I started helping local schools by becoming a substitute teacher.
This past January, I agreed to help out a friend who is the principal at a local middle school, and I took on a temporary position as a long-term substitute in a middle school English/Language Arts classroom. As a result, I fell behind with various sideline interests – including this site – but I’m finally getting caught up! I’ve now listened to the Prokofiev concerto several times, and I did very much enjoy it – though I’ll admit, when it comes to piano concertos for the left hand, I do prefer the one by Ravel (more on that below). I’d always heard of the Ravel concerto, but never listened to it until just a couple of weeks ago. I posted my comments and rating HERE. Shortly after that, I heard a snippet of a Prokofiev piano concerto on my car radio, and I liked what I heard – so I decided to listen to a Prokofiev work that week, but I wasn’t sure which concerto it was I’d heard. I searched “Prokofiev piano concerto” on YouTube and discovered that there were five of them, and decided on the 4th at this point because it too – like the Ravel – was for the left hand. LOL – I had no idea there were other concertos for the left hand beyond the Ravel work. Ravel’s was the only one I’d heard of. Concerning Prokofiev’s series of piano concertos, I found this: “Prokofiev’s five piano concertos were composed between 1911 and 1932. As a Russian expatriate and “novelty act” for most of that period, he was automatically placed in competition with two countrymen, Stravinsky the scandalous provocateur and Rachmaninoff the late-great-Romantic piano wizard. Sergei P. struggled to balance virtuoso display with authentic personal expression, while facing a constant demand—from critics, from audiences, from his own notion of genius—for something genuinely new.” The complete article is HERE. Also, from an article on the fourth concerto on Wikipedia, I found this: “Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 4 in B-flat major for the left hand, Op. 53, was commissioned by the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein and completed in 1931. It was the only one of Prokofiev's complete piano concertos that never saw a performance during his lifetime.” The concerto is comprised of four movements:
The piano takes off right at the start of this concerto, and the tone is somewhat happy-go-lucky if not mischievous, like the pianist might have something up his sleeve. Later the movement becomes a bit frolicsome, though two minutes into the work, some rather serious tension builds up and down the keyboard – both figuratively and literally. Some of the latter part of the movement is reminiscent of the second half of Raymond Scott’s work “Power House” (former Saturday morning cartoon watchers of a certain age know this as the “assembly line music” from Bugs Bunny cartoons). In complete contrast to the opening movement, the second movement is quite somber – almost elegiac. It is tender at times, but more passionate – almost angry – at others. The serious tone continues in the third movement, set with some moderately dissonant chords in the brass and strings. The piano then enters with a haunting theme in its very low bass range. Soon the energy picks up – almost march like with a pizzicato pulse in the strings – and the tone becomes somewhat menacing, to the point that the work would make a good soundtrack for a classic film noir movie. The tempo changes here and there, and though the intimidatory tone continues throughout much of the movement, there are hints of the frolicsome first movement. The piece concludes with a short vivace movement which definitely evokes the antics of the sprightly first movement. I did enjoy this concerto, but of the two works for the left hand – the Prokofiev and the Ravel – I definitely prefer the one by Ravel. The main difference between the two is that this one, by Prokofiev, sounds like a work for one hand, while the Ravel piece is astounding in its sound like a work for two hands. The Prokofiev, though, is worth a listen!
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I’ve been listening to new pieces (i.e., new to me) for two years now, and I don’t think I’ve listened to a work for guitar yet. I could be wrong, and maybe I just don’t remember, but I believe this is the first work for guitar I’ve listened to on this site.
I selected the Concerto for Guitar and Small Orchestra by Heitor Villa-Lobos at random, a piece written for the Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia, to whom the score is dedicated. I found this information on Wikipedia: “Initially in three movements and titled Fantasia concertante, Villa-Lobos later added a cadenza at Segovia's request, and changed the title to Concerto for Guitar and Small Orchestra. According to another version of the story, the situation was quite the reverse: Segovia commissioned the work with the stipulation that there should be no cadenza and the work be titled Fantasia concertante. Villa-Lobos, however, ignored these demands, supplying an extended cadenza and insisting the work be called a concerto.” (The complete article is HERE). No matter the case, Andrés Segovia first performed the concerto in February 1956 in Houston, Texas, with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the composer. Wikipedia lists four movements for the piece as follows:
However, when I first listened to the concerto, I did so on Spotify, and the album I found with the work performed by Narciso Yepes and the London Symphony Orchestra listed just three movements:
The Wikipedia article states this: “The cadenza is in four unmetered sections with different tempo markings (Quasi allegro – Andante – Quasi allegro – Poco moderato), and is so substantial in length that it functions as a separate movement.” (I added the underline.) Sooo…later I went back to the video I linked above on Youtube – with the concerto performed by Julian Bream and the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by André Previn – to listen to the “third movement,” i.e., the cadenza. The concerto is certainly pleasant and makes absolutely wonderful background music – so having said that, I suspect you can guess my rating gravitated to the lower end of my scale. Yes, the concerto is okay – but it’s not in the same league (at least to me) as some of the “greats,” like the concertos in C Major and D Major by Vivaldi, the Concierto de Aranjuez by Joaquin Rodrigo, and others. Mysterious chords a la a Bernard Herrmann score for an Alfred Hitchcock thriller open the first movement. Even the guitar line close to a minute-and-a-half in reminded me a bit of the soundtrack for “Vertigo.” Later the movement slows down, and it sounds more folksy and melancholic. The second movement continues the melancholy mood, and this movement has perhaps the most memorable melody line in the piece – though again, it doesn’t quite reach the level of greatness of the other concertos mentioned above. It does come close. The third movement (not the cadenza – so the fourth movement in the video linked above) opens at a faster pace and ties in elements from the earlier movements (as does the cadenza when I listened to that), but nothing about the movement is particularly memorable. Overall, the concerto is charming and pleasant to listen to – and the opening theme to the second movement does approach the greatness of other guitar concertos – but it’s just not enough to carry this entire piece for me.
I selected Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand because I'd always heard of it, but I've never actually listened to it == and now that I think about it, that's a bit astonishing -- and I do mean just a little bit -- because I play the piano and I'm left-handed. LOL -- I woulda thunk that I would have given it a try somewhere in the past. Well, I can never say I've never heard it anymore -- and I loved it. First, I read up on the concerto from a variety of sites. Here's some of what I learned: * Ravel wrote the concerto between 1929 and 1930 (concurrently with his Piano Concerto in G Major). * It was commissioned by the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein who'd lost his right arm during World War I. * Some sources say the concerto is only one movement. Others say the piece is divided into two movements linked together. * Still others argue the concerto has a tripartite structure; not fast-slow-fast like most three-movement concertos, but slow-fast-slow instead. An article on Wikipedia states, "Towards the end of the piece, some of the music of the early slow sections is overlaid with the faster music, so that two tempi occur simultaneously." * An article on the website for the Houston Symphony describes the structure of the concerto thoroughly; it includes these lines: "The concerto is structured as one movement with two clear parts. The slower first part begins with low, whispering arpeggios in the double basses, which accompany a murky contrabassoon solo....(this) is soon interrupted by a jazzy melody in the horns based on three notes of a descending scale. The rest of the piece evolves organically from these two ideas....A grand orchestral crescendo builds to the beginning of the faster second part of the concerto: a march. Fragmentary ideas appear above the steady tread of the march accompaniment, until the soloist introduces a new, dancing melody above it." The complete article is HERE, and it is definitely worth a read! Okay -- so my thoughts? * LOL -- upon my first time listening, I wasn't even sure that the concerto had begun. The Houston Symphony article was not exaggerating when they described the double basses as "whispering" -- the opening mood is very mysterious and very -- capital letters VERY -- quiet. * I loved the drama and the range of the piano's entrance, but after watching the score for the piece (on the video linked above), I still can't understand how one hand could achieve what is written. It is fascinating how Ravel created a sound that two hands are performing the concerto -- with longer/tied notes on the top, while the same hand then jumps down to strike lower notes; however, for example, check out some of the chords outlined below. Who could play those with one hand? * The march section, which begins just after eight minutes into the piece, is as captivating as it is thrilling -- and the triplet notes above the pounding bass reminded me of the rhythms employed by Stephen Sondheim in "Into the Woods" -- albeit with a more ominous tone.
* Is it just me, or does anyone else pick up on a slight "Bolero" vibe just at the measure marked "28" (at about 10:30 into the piece)? * By about 11:30, Ravel seems to have three pieces going on simultaneously: the constant throbbing of the march, the haunting triplets on the piano (a la "Into the Woods"), and a lush, slower piece of passion in the strings. It's all quite impressive. * At one point I heard the tension of a Bernard Herrmann score for an Alfred Hitchcock movie (particularly the piano runs at section 38 -- reminiscent of "Vertigo"?), maybe some Gershwin (or even Louis Moreau Gottschalk?) around section 41, and toward the end of the piece I heard some John Williams a la his score to "Star Wars." As I stated above, Ravel's Concerto for the Left Hand is impressive! I loved it. Each week I listen to a new piece of classical music (i.e., new to me), and then I make comments and post a rating. In 2022 I listened to 40 pieces (with various weeks off for travel), and a recap of my ratings is shown below.
To read about any particular piece, click on the composer's name in the "Archives" list on the right side of the page. I will listen to my first new piece for 2023 during the week starting January 8th. |
A New Hope:As the header above says, each week I will listen to a piece of classical music that I've never heard before, and then I will report out what I thought about it. Archives
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