FRIEDRICH KUHLAU
Piano Concerto in C major
Marianna Shirinyan, piano
Sjællands Symfoniorkester
Rolf Gupta
October 19, 2010
Copenhagen
192 kbs mp3 (no re-encoding)
When a rip-off of Beethoven's C-major piano concerto is so obvious, it is no longer an act of theft, but rather an act of blind adulation and worship of the Master. Being a musical pervert that I am, I have a soft spot for such derivative piano works; and Kuhlau's concerto gives me as much guilty pleasure as I get from concertos by Hummel, Ries, Moscheles, Kullak, Sterndale Bennett, Thalberg, and many other early 19th century pianists-composers. There is something melancholy about these relics of the piano's glory age, even if in their similarity to one another they remind me of a large and heavily inbred clan of good-natured folks from some village in the mountains of West Virginia.
In any case, the concerto is lovingly played by the Armenian-born, Copenhagen-based Marianna Shirinyan, and I can think of at least one piano buff (a fellow blogger) who might find this well-recorded, live and unedited performance as enjoyable as I have.
2 comments:
http://tinyurl.com/7pldlrz
I can't believe no-one's commented on this one! Derivative yes, but isn't it fun! I love the last movement, which reminds me oddly of Haydn's D major concerto with the 'wrong notes'. A first theme that rushes off then hesitates, stops... And a slow section where he keeps choosing just the wrong note to make the theme beautiful. Marvellous stuff, a very Haydn-esque smile-on-the-face finale & the timpanist clearly got the message that tonight was about having fun!
I've only heard one Kuhlau piece before this, and that was when my daughter learned one for grade 4 I think - so hardly comparable. I must try some more...
Thanks Boom - another delight!
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