To select a piece to listen to this week, I ran a Google-search on “unsung classical music composers,” and the first hit was this article, “The 11 Most Underrated Composers in Classical Music,” from ClassicFM.com, HERE. From the article: “This list started life as 'The 10 most underrated composers in classical music', but then John Suchet played some Moritz Moszkowski in his weekday mornings show and said he hadn't heard of the composer. Shocked Classic FM listeners contacted John to say they couldn't believe he didn't know Moszkowski's work - and so we've added him to this list.” I’ve never heard of Moszkowski either, so I decided to listen to one of his piano concertos based on info in the ClassicalFM article; however, the article and its link is a bit misleading because it says this: “The brilliant young German pianist Joseph Moog recently recorded his (Moszkowski's) Piano Concerto” -- specifying a singular "piano concerto." The link in the post took me HERE where another article states, “The piano concerto by Moritz Moszkowski is an unjustly forgotten work” -- again, specifying a singular "piano concerto." However, when I ran a search on the "piano concerto” by Moritz Moszkowski, I discovered that he had actually written TWO of them, not one. I decided to listen to the one in E Major, the Piano Concerto No. 2, because that was the one mentioned in the article concerning Joseph Moog’s recording. I did find the recording by Moog on YouTube; however, it was not uploaded as a single video. Instead, the individual movements are posted independently: For now, I've listened to the concerto once, and I plan to listen to it at least one more time before posting my comments and overall rating -- so I'll try to have those up soon!
UPDATE 1: Woodwinds and strings open the concerto with a four-bar theme before the piano takes off with a multi-octave run. The piano then picks up the opening theme and expands it. As the movement continues, the main theme and comparable variations weave between the orchestra and the piano with little to no rest for the pianist. The sound is so expressive and lush, it begged a type of chicken-or-egg question: Who came first, Rachmaninoff or Moszkowski? Well, it turns out that Moszkowski wrote this, his second piano concerto, in 1898, and Rachmaninoff composed his Piano Concerto No. 2 between 1900 and 1901. Moszkowski composed his first piano concerto in 1874, and Rachmaninoff wrote his in 1891. To be honest, I even heard hints of Grieg in Moszkowski’s concerto, and Grieg composed his Piano Concerto in A Minor in 1868. Well, I don’t know whether or not classical music historians would say that Moszkowski influenced Rachmaninoff or that Rachmaninoff and Grieg influenced Moszkowski, but all were most certainly men of their times, and all were motivated, shaped and swayed by the musical qualities and styles of the Romantic era. By the way, when I was looking up the dates for the Grieg, Rachmaninoff, and Moszkowski piano concertos, I stumbled upon this bit of information (HERE): “The disappearance for years of the composer's Piano Concerto No.1 led to the mistaken conjecture that "Piano Concerto No.2" was a reference either to a lost "piano concerto no.1" or (as with other composers, e.g. Ferdinand Ries) labeling his violin concerto as "Concerto No.1" and continuing his piano concerto as "Concerto No.2". With the rediscovery of his Piano Concerto in B minor, Op.3 (mentioned after all in Moszkowski's autobiography and elsewhere), its reconstruction and first recording, the use of "No.2" for Op.59 is no longer such a mystery.” Written in 1874, Moszkowski’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B Minor was lost and only rediscovered in 2011 and published in 2013; hence the confusing use of the singular “piano concerto” in the ClassicFM article I mentioned above. Anyway, back to the first movement of Moszkowski’s Piano Concerto No. 2, a composition characterized by non-stop brilliance on the part of the pianist. There are three or four bars of rest here and there while the orchestra advances the piece, but other than that, the pianist rarely gets a dotted-eighth note time to rest in the piece as the work races on. About ten minutes in, though, the movement slows a bit, marked “tempo calmato (i.e. a calmer tempo), and it includes dynamics such as “molto calmato,” “espressivo,” and “tranquillo.” It doesn’t take long, though, before a final “allegro animato” section with a crescendo “quanto possibile” (as much as possible) has the piano flying once again to the movement’s rousing conclusion. The second movement opens with soft pizzicato notes from the woodwinds and strings, and this passage provides almost a sneaky mood to the piece. Soon, the piano joins in “con duolo” (with grief). The orchestra then moves to a variation on the opening theme as the piano plays triplet sixteenth notes “leggiero e staccato” (light and detached) above more pizzicato strings. This synergetic relationship between the piano and orchestra provides a sweet but forlorn lament. Finally, a concluding passage marked “pochissimo ritard” – with no delay – takes us to the vivace (i.e., lively) scherzo, the third movement of the concerto. “Attacca” (i.e., “Attack”) wrote Moszkowski at the start of the third movement, and the pianist does just that with nary a moment to rest. The piece takes off as the orchestra and piano weave in and out of a brisk and vivacious theme. Things do calm down a bit in a legato section that calls to mind themes from the opening movement, only to have the piano take off again in a sprint to a final section marked “ancora più presto” (i.e., even faster) in a race to the end. Oh, if only Moszkowski had ended the piece there. But no. There’s still the fourth movement, marked “Allegro deciso” (firmly cheerful). **sigh** I loved the concerto up to this point, and to be honest, there’s nothing specifically unpleasant about the final movement – except to me, it has too much of a cheerful Broadway air to it – as if Shirley Jones were about to step onto the Oklahoma prairie to sing about a beautiful morning. Of course, the piece doesn’t actually sound like “Oh What a Beautiful Morning,” but to me it has that saccharine-y, mawkish feel to it. Take a listen to the piece yourself. Am I wrong? Am I being too hyper-critical? Oh, there are some sections of the movement that fit a little better with the overall feel of the concerto, but the sunshiny passages just make think that the sun is going to come out tomorrow and orphans everywhere are going to be decidedly cheerful (i.e., “allegro deciso”). With about thirty-eight bars left in the work, the orchestra and the piano replay the opening theme from the first movement forcefully and magnificently to bring the work to a close. I suppose I would have been okay with this if Moszkowski had just tacked that onto the end of the third movement (although it really isn't needed); however, concerning most of the fourth movement – I could have done without it. My rating for the work? Well, this is a first: I'm going to give this concerto two separate ratings. I loved the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd movements -- so they rated "Green." The 4th movement rated "Blue."
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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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