Concerto Symphonique by Ernest Bloch. Performed by Halida Dinov. Conducted by Alexander Tchernushenk with the Symphony Orchestra of the State Academic Cappella of St Petersburg.
I. Pesante - 00:00
II. Allegro Vivace - 15:47
III. Allegro Deciso - 29:44
Bloch composed very little throughout the Second World War, but in 1946 he began a major score for piano and orchestra -- theConcerto symphonique -- which occupied him for a full two years. The premiere, under the composer's direction, took place on 3 September 1949 at the Edinburgh
International Festival, with the Scottish Orchestra and the pianist Corinne Lacomblé as soloist.
The piano, unaccompanied, announces a balefully rising six-note figure, Molto marcato; this is to be an important unifying element in the work, as are the rhapsodic flourishes with which it continues. The orchestra enters with a variant of the rising figure, and together they construct a sizeable introduction with a number of other tense, anticipatory figures, all to be developed later on -- notably a tramping, march-like tune, symbolic perhaps of an unending Exodus. This trudging idea becomes the principal subject of the first movement proper, which begins Moderato ruvido in the concerto's principal key, B minor; other features are an agitated trumpet-call figure and a bravura Più animato second subject in 12 / 8 time which brings a momentary lightening of mood. The piano alludes to the rhapsodic elements of the introduction before the development section sets in -- a gradual progress from muttering calm to a peak of tension, incorporating virtually all the many themes so far heard. The outcome is a clangorous cadenza, referring to both main subjects but ultimately held together by the rising theme of the very opening and culminating in massive chords. The orchestral tutti that follows initiates the recapitulation with the tragic march, and the piano soon rejoins the action for an eerily atmospheric coda where the colour and energy seem to drain out of the movement
and mere wraiths of previously forceful ideas fade into silence.
There is little really slow music in this Concerto: the ensuing Allegro vivace is a big scherzo enclosing a slower middle section that is the nearest the work comes to a 'slow movement'. The scherzo music is a hectic, percussive danse macabre which Bloch himself described as 'diabolical' in character; it is one of his most brilliant pieces of writing. A transition, based on the rising pattern from the work's opening and the first movement's trumpet figure, leads into the sensuous, miasmic central trio, a region of other-worldly meditation, beautiful but never really serene. It rises to an imploring melodic utterance in the strings, but the scherzo returns, its mocking, vitriolic elements intensified. Once again there is a transition based on first-movement material; a coda begins with a pleading reminiscence of the central section and the movement fades out mysteriously.
The finale opens by alternating a resolute fanfare-theme with lyrical material similar to the coda of the previous movement, but swiftly gathers momentum into a determined, martial Allegro deciso. (One of the many motifs is an idea Bloch first sketched on hearing of the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917.) The texture of the music is more contrapuntal than in previousmovements, with strenuous combinations ofthemes. The exultant second subject, introduced by the piano, has something both of pealing bells and the sense of an army marching to war. Instead of a development, an atmospheric central episode brings back and further explores ideas from the first movement. The finale's main materials are then recapitulated in developed form, and with a continual increase in brilliance and grandeur. The return of the bell-like second subject marks the achievement of a victorious B major; the coda, however, returns to the materials of the first-movement introduction, and the minatory rising six-note theme from the very opening closes the circle of Bloch's tumultuous argument.
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Charles Gounod - Symphony No. 2 in E Flat (1855)by GoldieG891,115 views
Epic !
JCHBONNET 4 months ago
WOW ~ what a fabulous piece of music! I'm all stirred up!
Thank you very much for this post as well as the extended information.
mmbmbmbmb 4 months ago