A.Schiff plays Dvorak piano concerto

Andras Schiff pianist, Budapest festival orchestra Ivan Fischer conductor. Prague spring 2008

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Classical

[sanjosemike]

ONE OF THE GREAT PIANO CONCERTOES IN THE REPERTOIRE

This conceto rivals any by Brahms, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky or Chopin.

Unfortunately it is not performed nearly as often as it should be, possibly because it is very long and frankly difficult to play.

It has had some rough criticism by some music critics, who are idiots.

I absolutely adore this work. It needs to be heard far more often. There are two "piano versions" of it, both excellent in my opinion.

sanjosemike

[pianoenthusiast11]

it is in fact a very difficult score, in both the Dvorak original and also the Kurz re-write - but it is a wonderful piece, and actually a lot of pianists seem to have recorded it now, and several of them non-Czechs too!

[youchocolateme]

@Rmypantson

i beg to differ. The great maestro, Sviatoslav Richter, who along with Carlos Kleiber promoted this concerto from obscurity, wrote in his notebook/diary that this concerto is probably the hardest concerto out there, together with Tchaikovsky's first.

[bersa888]

@Rmypantson : The main critique of the concerto is about its non-idiomatic writing for the instrument, which is more or less true, whether someone wanted to admit it or not ;-) But I played many of his chamber works with piano, and, although they are sometimes ill-fitted to the hand, they are a joy to play - like this concerto :-)

[ym42ym42]

@sanjosemike Its good, but don't you know its edited and revised by Vilem Kurz, do not know which version this is, I have not played this one... Its good though!

[1993allende]

@evansvitz grow up man. Schiff plays this beautifully in my opinion. I admit I had not previously heard this concerto.

[Rmypantson]

This concerto is not difficult for an accomplished pianist. Dvorak knew it, critics knew it. I don't understand why the top comments both say this is difficult. I'm not saying that it is easy, just that it is not a virtuosic concerto.

[christomacin]

Schiff really plays the living hell out of this finale!

[FirstGentleman1]

Masterpiece!

[fredericfranc]

This music is unbelievably crude in conception, like it is basically Brahmsian, but, God, compare it to real Brahms!. But Antonin is nailing his coonskin to the wall, even if the piano part is ridiculously hard to play, Dvorak had no idea how to write idiomatically for this instrument. Perhaps that is why the cocerto has such a "wild and crazy guy" quality, sounds like those SNL guys saying: BALLS!

[k73f]

@sanjosemike amen! This is such a underplayed work, it's really sad

[ulyssesjj]

@evansvitz You still have a little to learn about the music world. Calling Andras names will not endear you to many and as you will probably already know, it is about how much you are liked as a musician and not just how many notes you can thump out. Maybe you will grow up before you are widely thought of as the prick you seem to be...