Liszt: Piano Concerto 1 & 2
Prelude
For this sixth Works Series entry of Franz Liszt's orchestral music, I will be covering the composer's efforts into the genre of concertante music: Piano Concerto 1 & 2. While I have inserted older cover art above and below, this blog post actually covers my listening of the sixth volume (of seven) from EMI / Warner's 2011 box set of Liszt's orchestral and concertante music with Kurt Masur and the Gewandhaus Orchestra performing.
Unlike Liszt's tone poems, where I know a few fairly well, but not so much the others, his piano concertos are well-known quantities to me. These are two works which are not my favorite in the genre, as they many of the same pitfalls from composers who wrote for themselves to play on tour as performers. The first examples which come to mind besides Liszt are Paganini and Sarasate, although there are countless others.
The pitfall is the spotlight on the soloist's bravado rather than an effective piece of music, which in a concerto should feature a coherent dialogue between soloist and orchestra. Piano Concerto no. 1 in E-flat Major is so wrapped up in its solo piano limelight, that it constantly pauses the orchestra to have its own say. Only in the third movement Scherzo does the music barrel forward without stopping, although this is also the point where Liszt halts the movement in order to revisit the themes from the previous two movements.
There are two aspects which usually come to mind when I hear Liszt's First Piano Concerto. First, is the composer's wealth of melodies, and good ones too. One can forgive the rhapsodic elements of Liszt's concerto form because the tunes win the day. The second aspect is the rather light scoring for the orchestra. I almost would consider this a chamber approach to orchestration, for he loves to have the solo piano play aside a solo instrument from the orchestra. Conversely, the tutti sections, such as the opening Gargamel theme in full strings, make more of an impact because this concerto is filled to the brim with said smaller moments.
Piano Concerto no. 2 in A Major is not as heaven-touched for thematic material. On the other hand, Liszt does better with the soloist / orchestra interplay, although we are still treated to moments where solo orchestral instruments are paired alongside the solo piano, most notably solo cello and clarinet. One can appreciate the tutti portions more here as well, where the orchestra is simply given more to do.
I am also struck by Liszt's choice of harmonic movement in his Second Piano Concerto from time to time, surprisingly often reminding me of Saint-Saëns and Debussy. Of course, the listener mainly remembers the gruff spectacle of these works, with pianistic fireworks the focus of the music.
That said, this is still rather light music making considering the set of symphonic poems and symphonies from Liszt I just traversed in this Masur set. The size of these two concertos are not gargantuan, but rather lithely proportioned, as are their musical prospects; instead these probably worked very well to buoy small town orchestras as Liszt toured the European countryside as a soloing performer.
EMI has made sure that French pianist Michel Béroff is plenty in front of the orchestra, so there is no question where the focus of the music is pointed. While some might prefer a more monolithic approach to Liszt's piano concertos, Béroff is a tad unpretentious, preferring intimacy and poetry over any excessively virtuosic showboating. I found much the same from Jean-Yves Thibaudet with Charles Dutoit and Montreal on Decca, another Francophile outing I enjoy as a contrast to the firmer, and often more popular, Germanic approach.
In the Warner set, two Liszt transcriptions of solo piano works are given the concertante treatment - the Wanderer-Fantasie in C Major from Franz Schubert and Polonaise Brilliante in E Major 'l'Hilarité' from Carl Maria von Weber. Who knows if these two late Classical Era / early Romantic Era composers would have approved of such arrangements and orchestrations of their works, but again, I suspect Liszt needed some impressive pieces for traveling abroad as a pianist. I will explore more of these types of pieces from Liszt in the last volume to follow.
Liszt
interpolates some of this music to accommodate a concertante format from its soloist origins. Sometimes this involved piano and orchestra sharing duties from the solo right and left hands, other times giving
the piano more impressive virtuosity while the orchestra handles the main
material. I even caught Liszt adding melodic ideas where there was
none, usually in moments of endless cascading scales and arpeggios.
Liszt gives over a lot of solo piano time to the Adagio from the Wanderer-Fantasie in particular, and there are similar portions where the pianist resides substantially away from the orchestra in the Polonaise Brilliante. Is it just me, or does anyone else hear stride piano in small moments in the Polonaise? Crazy man...
I can't speak with any authority as to how Béroff and Masur compare to other recordings of these two pieces since I haven't heard them. I do know Béroff's technique is impressive and Masur isn't afraid to drive the music if necessary, bring out Wagnerian oomph when required. I will say, I found Masur a little more flexible with Béroff on hand, especially in the concertos, a fine influence on the East-German conductor. Of course, if you like this team up, both pianist and conductor continued together, performing and recording a cycle of Prokofiev's concertos, also on EMI with the Gewandhaus Orchestra.
Work Series
Vol. 6 from Liszt Orchestral Works on Warner
Works
Piano Concerto 1 in E-flat Major, S 124 (17.33)
Piano Concerto 2 in A Major, S 125 (20.33)
Wanderer-Fantasie, S 366 (19.49)
Polonaise Brilliante 'l'Hilarité', S 367 (9.33)
Soloist
Michel Béroff, piano
Performers
Gewandhaus Orchestra
Kurt Masur, conductor
Label: EMI / Warner
Year: 1977-80; 2011
Total Timing: 68.01
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