There are some concertos that I discovered more than fifty years ago which still give me particular pleasure even though they are not part of the "standard repertoire" kind; they are Hummel in A minor, Bortkiewicz no.1, Bax Symphonic Variations, Gershwin 2nd Rhapsody, Dvorak Piano Concerto, Rimsky-Korsakov Concerto, the two Glazunov Concertos, MacDowell two concertos, Moszkowski E major, Holbrooke "Song of Gwynn Ap Nudd," Rozycki Ballade, Franck Les Djinns and the Khachaturian Concerto. The last piece was, at one time, frequently played and recorded (I heard it played by Nikolai Petrov and conducted by the composer at the RFH) but it doesn't seem to be performed much nowadays. I'd certainly rate it much more highly than some of those included in the Classic FM list.
FAO The other Jeffrey!
It must have been great to attend the Cyril Scott 90th Birthday Concert. I think that the Bernard Herrmann/John Ogdon recording on Lyrita is the best one.
I attended Cyril Scott's ninetieth birthday concert (he was in the audience) which was marked by a performance of his first piano concerto by Moura Lympany. Ms Lympany played the Prokofiev 4th concerto in the second half. A few days afterwards I spoke to the girl who had turned pages for her in the Scott work - she played the Prokofiev from memory - and she told me that Moura Lympany had said that she liked the Prokofiev work very much but didn't think much of the Scott. I'm sure she didn't spoil the composer's celebrations by telling him so !
As for my all time favourites, would you like last week's, this week's or next week's list ? When it comes to music I'm fickle.
Well, here are my favourites (not 'greatest')
Bliss: Piano Concerto
Bliss: Concerto for Two Pianos
Vaughan Williams: Concerto for Two Pianos
Berkeley (L): Concerto for Two Pianos
Prokofiev: PC No. 2
Rawsthorne: PC No.2
Cyril Scott: Piano Concerto No.1
Busoni: Piano Concerto
Ireland: Legend for Piano and Orchestra
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.4
Chisholm: Piano Concerto No.1
Arnell: Piano Concerto
Englund: Piano Concerto No.1
Saint-Saens: PC No.2
Palmgren Piano Concerto No.2 'The River'
It would be nice to think that Classic FM listeners are not so docile or incurious that they would take these lists as somehow authoritative. But, given the influence of that radio station, I am not altogether confident about this.
I didn't post a link to the list but it is easily found on the internet along with some alternative, more sensible, lists.
The concept of "Twenty best piano concertos of all time" is , in itself, ludicrous given that the majority of composers worthy of the name have contributed at least one concerto to the genre since Bach's time. A far easier option would be to choose twenty piano concertos which, under no circumstances, should be included in such a list and, of the three examples given from the Classic FM list, I can confidently assert that at least one of them would fall readily into that category.
The three examples mentioned by Terry Hopton have left me wondering what other titles have found their way into the Classic FM list....The Yellow River Concerto, Semprini's Mediterranean Concerto, Russ Conway's My Concerto for You ?
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