Album available // Dvořák: Piano Concerto, Op. 33 by Rudolf Firkušný 🎧 Qobuz (Hi-Res) cutt.ly/Fe2S7HfJ Tidal (Hi-Res) cutt.ly/pe2S5eTl 🎧 Apple Music (Lossless) cutt.ly/Oe2S5scu Deezer (Hi-Fi) cutt.ly/ze2S5vyG 🎧 Amazon Music (Hi-Res) cutt.ly/Ke2S5UZN Spotify (mp3) cutt.ly/9e2S5HAQ 🎧 TH-cam Music (mp4) cutt.ly/3e2S5MSO 🔊 Download the album (Hi-Res MASTER - WAV uncompressed): classicalmusicreference.com/ 00:00 I. Allegro agitato (2025 Remastered, Studio 1960) 17:30 II. Andante sostenuto (2025 Remastered, Studio 1960) 26:00 III. Allegro con fuoco (2025 Remastered, Studio 1960) Piano: Rudolf Firkušný WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln Conductor: Rafael Kubelík Recorded in 1960 (mono) New mastering in 2024 by AB for classicalmusicreference.com/ ❤ Support me on Patreon cutt.ly/ZezaldhI 🔊 Join us with your phone on our WhatsApp fanpage (our latest album preview): cutt.ly/5eathESK 🔊 Find our entire catalog on Qobuz: cutt.ly/geathMhL 🔊 Discover our playlists on Spotify: cutt.ly/ceatjtlB While Dvorak's music for solo piano represent a considerable share of his musical legacy, and his group of chamber music works with piano are also a significant part of this, the Piano Concerto in G minor is his only work for piano and orchestra in his entire oeuvre. If we discount his early concerto for cello with piano accompanime it, it is also the first of the composer's three instrumental concerto's (later followed by the violin and cello concertos). Dvorak was a fine pianist, but never a virtuoso in the true sense of the word. He was well aware of this, and accordingly restricted his occasional appearances on the concert platform to performances within an ensemble or together with vocal soloists whom he would accompany at the keyboard. To this day we are unaware of the reasons which led him to choose the piano as the solo instrument for the first of his concertante works with orchestra. Although there is no direct documentation in existence, Dvorak literature often states that the composer - at that time not very well known - opted for the piano concertante form for "practical" reasons: he had great hopes in its performance by the excellent young pianist Karel Slavkovsky, who showed a lively interest in new works by the Czech composers and took the initiative by presenting them at his concerts. This supposition is also supported by the fact that Slavkovsky did indeed perform the work's premiere later on. Dvorak worked on the concerto for about one month, at the end of August and beginning of September 1876, soon after completing his third cycle of Moravian Duets (op. 32). He dedicated the piece to leading aesthetician and music critic of his day Eduard Hanslick as an expression of his appreciation for the attention the latter devoted to his work. The final shape of the piano concerto was the result of countless revisions and adjustments the composer made while he was finishing the work at the end of the summer of 1876, and of many other undertaken before its publication (1883). In the intervening period the score passed through the hands of a number of publishers and pianists and it is feasible that the composer decided to make certain revisions on the basis of their observations. At the beginning of the 21 century the Moravian Provincial Museum in Brno unearthed a hitherto unknown unknown copy of the concerto which proved to be an early version of the score. Research carried out by musicologist Ludmila Smidova shows that the final version reflects much greater elaboration of the solo part, giving rise to a more ostentatious virtuosity and a broader range of expressional means, also a more colorful instrumentation, and interventions in the musical development of the thematic texture. The original version of the work thus provides, above all, an important document of the composer's creative process. The first movement of the concerto is written in a broadly diverging sonata form, which treats 3 central themes. The mood of the movement is chiefly determined by the nature of the main and closing themes, typical for their atmosphere of majestic solemnity. An effective contrast is created by the secondary theme in B flat major, whose carefree spirit conjures up the world of the Slavonic Dances. The complexly structured development section is one of the longest in the composer's oeuvre. It comprises two major sections, the first of which treats the subsidiary theme, while the second works with the main theme. At the end of the development we are given a glimmer of a highly distinctive motif (first in the French horns and immediately afterwards in the oboes) which, in its rhythmical contour, is strongly reminiscent of the main theme of the first movement of the New World Symphony. After the regular recapitulations comes a solo cadenza as one of the few external traits of the concertante style which Dvorak preserved in this work (in his later violin and cello concertos he left out the cadenza altogether). The second movement in slow tempo comprises two fundamental themes, of which the first is unusual for its almost complete absence of more marked rhythmical elements: apart from a slight surge at the end of the last bar, it consists entirely of crochet values. The second subject, in its melodic ornamentation, gentle instrumentation of the orchestral accompaniment, and in its overall character, recalls the free movements of Chopin's piano concertos. The middle part of the movement is certainly more dramatic and is constructed on the basis of the final rhythmical element of the main theme. The third movement treats three themes, the first two typified by strong rhythmical ideas. The first is stylized in the manner of a toccata, while the second is almost dance-like in character. The third theme introduces an effective contrast in its lyrical melodic line. In terms of form, the movement is a combination of sonata form and rondo. Other Album available // Dvořák: Slavonic Dances Op. 46 & 72 by Karel Šejna 🎧 Qobuz cutt.ly/0e5xBdOw Tidal cutt.ly/Fe5xBWzH 🎧 Apple Music cutt.ly/ee5xBCWu Deezer cutt.ly/ee5xBCWu 🎧 Amazon Music cutt.ly/6e5xNVd8 Spotify cutt.ly/Oe5xMdkP 🎧 TH-cam Music cutt.ly/ce5xMOVH Antonín Dvořák PLAYLIST (reference recordings): th-cam.com/video/XI5Jsheka40/w-d-xo.html
I have often revisited this concerto in hope of really ‘getting it’, but alas never did, not even in Richter’s hands. But this, with Firkusny and Kubelik both, is at last the magnificent Dvorak I have been looking for. A wonderful, lively and deeply lyrical work in its own right, and a fascinating forerunner to the great violin and cello concertos to follow. Many thanks to whoever believed in the composition and performance enough to remaster it and post it here. Many thanks !
While Dvorak's music for solo piano represent a considerable share of his musical legacy, and his group of chamber music works with piano are also a significant part of this, the Piano Concerto in G minor is his only work for piano and orchestra in his entire oeuvre. If we discount his early concerto for cello with piano accompanime it, it is also the first of the composer's three instrumental concerto's (later followed by the violin and cello concertos). Dvorak was a fine pianist, but never a virtuoso in the true sense of the word. He was well aware of this, and accordingly restricted his occasional appearances on the concert platform to performances within an ensemble or together with vocal soloists whom he would accompany at the keyboard. To this day we are unaware of the reasons which led him to choose the piano as the solo instrument for the first of his concertante works with orchestra. Although there is no direct documentation in existence, Dvorak literature often states that the composer - at that time not very well known - opted for the piano concertante form for "practical" reasons: he had great hopes in its performance by the excellent young pianist Karel Slavkovsky, who showed a lively interest in new works by the Czech composers and took the initiative by presenting them at his concerts. This supposition is also supported by the fact that Slavkovsky did indeed perform the work's premiere later on. Dvorak worked on the concerto for about one month, at the end of August and beginning of September 1876, soon after completing his third cycle of Moravian Duets (op. 32). He dedicated the piece to leading aesthetician and music critic of his day Eduard Hanslick as an expression of his appreciation for the attention the latter devoted to his work. The final shape of the piano concerto was the result of countless revisions and adjustments the composer made while he was finishing the work at the end of the summer of 1876, and of many other undertaken before its publication (1883). In the intervening period the score passed through the hands of a number of publishers and pianists and it is feasible that the composer decided to make certain revisions on the basis of their observations. At the beginning of the 21 century the Moravian Provincial Museum in Brno unearthed a hitherto unknown unknown copy of the concerto which proved to be an early version of the score. Research carried out by musicologist Ludmila Smidova shows that the final version reflects much greater elaboration of the solo part, giving rise to a more ostentatious virtuosity and a broader range of expressional means, also a more colorful instrumentation, and interventions in the musical development of the thematic texture. The original version of the work thus provides, above all, an important document of the composer's creative process. The first movement of the concerto is written in a broadly diverging sonata form, which treats 3 central themes. The mood of the movement is chiefly determined by the nature of the main and closing themes, typical for their atmosphere of majestic solemnity. An effective contrast is created by the secondary theme in B flat major, whose carefree spirit conjures up the world of the Slavonic Dances. The complexly structured development section is one of the longest in the composer's oeuvre. It comprises two major sections, the first of which treats the subsidiary theme, while the second works with the main theme. At the end of the development we are given a glimmer of a highly distinctive motif (first in the French horns and immediately afterwards in the oboes) which, in its rhythmical contour, is strongly reminiscent of the main theme of the first movement of the New World Symphony. After the regular recapitulations comes a solo cadenza as one of the few external traits of the concertante style which Dvorak preserved in this work (in his later violin and cello concertos he left out the cadenza altogether). The second movement in slow tempo comprises two fundamental themes, of which the first is unusual for its almost complete absence of more marked rhythmical elements: apart from a slight surge at the end of the last bar, it consists entirely of crochet values. The second subject, in its melodic ornamentation, gentle instrumentation of the orchestral accompaniment, and in its overall character, recalls the free movements of Chopin's piano concertos. The middle part of the movement is certainly more dramatic and is constructed on the basis of the final rhythmical element of the main theme. The third movement treats three themes, the first two typified by strong rhythmical ideas. The first is stylized in the manner of a toccata, while the second is almost dance-like in character. The third theme introduces an effective contrast in its lyrical melodic line. In terms of form, the movement is a combination of sonata form and rondo. Other Album available // Dvořák: Slavonic Dances Op. 46 & 72 by Karel Šejna 🎧 Qobuz cutt.ly/0e5xBdOw Tidal cutt.ly/Fe5xBWzH 🎧 Apple Music cutt.ly/ee5xBCWu Deezer cutt.ly/ee5xBCWu 🎧 Amazon Music cutt.ly/6e5xNVd8 Spotify cutt.ly/Oe5xMdkP 🎧 TH-cam Music cutt.ly/ce5xMOVH
Come in tutta la musica slava( anche la russa) alla “ fragorosita’ strumentale nel sottofondo vi è sempre una nota di nostalgia ( soprattutto movimento lento) una esecuzione superba che esprime a pieno la creatività dell’autore. Da 10 e lode 😮
For me, this piano concerto by Dvořák represents only his initial attempt to write a concerto, a beautiful practice, a good improvisation, but his success in this genre was only achieved in his two later concertos, for violin and cello. Listening to this recording for me is, therefore, only an act of curiosity and respect for the great figure that Antonín Dvořák is for music, even though the beautiful interpretation is minimally pleasant, given the worthy recognition of the effort and talent of Rudolf Firkušný at piano, this time accompanied by the also great interpreter of Dvořák, Rafael Kubelík, conducting the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln in 1960. My applause for this restoration by the Classical Music/Reference Recording channel, which never disappoints, in yet another excellent work.
Album available // Dvořák: Piano Concerto, Op. 33 by Rudolf Firkušný
🎧 Qobuz (Hi-Res) cutt.ly/Fe2S7HfJ Tidal (Hi-Res) cutt.ly/pe2S5eTl
🎧 Apple Music (Lossless) cutt.ly/Oe2S5scu Deezer (Hi-Fi) cutt.ly/ze2S5vyG
🎧 Amazon Music (Hi-Res) cutt.ly/Ke2S5UZN Spotify (mp3) cutt.ly/9e2S5HAQ
🎧 TH-cam Music (mp4) cutt.ly/3e2S5MSO
🔊 Download the album (Hi-Res MASTER - WAV uncompressed): classicalmusicreference.com/
00:00 I. Allegro agitato (2025 Remastered, Studio 1960)
17:30 II. Andante sostenuto (2025 Remastered, Studio 1960)
26:00 III. Allegro con fuoco (2025 Remastered, Studio 1960)
Piano: Rudolf Firkušný
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln
Conductor: Rafael Kubelík
Recorded in 1960 (mono)
New mastering in 2024 by AB for classicalmusicreference.com/
❤ Support me on Patreon cutt.ly/ZezaldhI
🔊 Join us with your phone on our WhatsApp fanpage (our latest album preview): cutt.ly/5eathESK
🔊 Find our entire catalog on Qobuz: cutt.ly/geathMhL
🔊 Discover our playlists on Spotify: cutt.ly/ceatjtlB
While Dvorak's music for solo piano represent a considerable share of his musical legacy, and his group of chamber music works with piano are also a significant part of this, the Piano Concerto in G minor is his only work for piano and orchestra in his entire oeuvre. If we discount his early concerto for cello with piano accompanime it, it is also the first of the composer's three instrumental concerto's (later followed by the violin and cello concertos). Dvorak was a fine pianist, but never a virtuoso in the true sense of the word. He was well aware of this, and accordingly restricted his occasional appearances on the concert platform to performances within an ensemble or together with vocal soloists whom he would accompany at the keyboard. To this day we are unaware of the reasons which led him to choose the piano as the solo instrument for the first of his concertante works with orchestra. Although there is no direct documentation in existence, Dvorak literature often states that the composer - at that time not very well known - opted for the piano concertante form for "practical" reasons: he had great hopes in its performance by the excellent young pianist Karel Slavkovsky, who showed a lively interest in new works by the Czech composers and took the initiative by presenting them at his concerts. This supposition is also supported by the fact that Slavkovsky did indeed perform the work's premiere later on. Dvorak worked on the concerto for about one month, at the end of August and beginning of September 1876, soon after completing his third cycle of Moravian Duets (op. 32). He dedicated the piece to leading aesthetician and music critic of his day Eduard Hanslick as an expression of his appreciation for the attention the latter devoted to his work.
The final shape of the piano concerto was the result of countless revisions and adjustments the composer made while he was finishing the work at the end of the summer of 1876, and of many other undertaken before its publication (1883). In the intervening period the score passed through the hands of a number of publishers and pianists and it is feasible that the composer decided to make certain revisions on the basis of their observations. At the beginning of the 21 century the Moravian Provincial Museum in Brno unearthed a hitherto unknown unknown copy of the concerto which proved to be an early version of the score. Research carried out by musicologist Ludmila Smidova shows that the final version reflects much greater elaboration of the solo part, giving rise to a more ostentatious virtuosity and a broader range of expressional means, also a more colorful instrumentation, and interventions in the musical development of the thematic texture. The original version of the work thus provides, above all, an important document of the composer's creative process.
The first movement of the concerto is written in a broadly diverging sonata form, which treats 3 central themes. The mood of the movement is chiefly determined by the nature of the main and closing themes, typical for their atmosphere of majestic solemnity. An effective contrast is created by the secondary theme in B flat major, whose carefree spirit conjures up the world of the Slavonic Dances. The complexly structured development section is one of the longest in the composer's oeuvre. It comprises two major sections, the first of which treats the subsidiary theme, while the second works with the main theme. At the end of the development we are given a glimmer of a highly distinctive motif (first in the French horns and immediately afterwards in the oboes) which, in its rhythmical contour, is strongly reminiscent of the main theme of the first movement of the New World Symphony. After the regular recapitulations comes a solo cadenza as one of the few external traits of the concertante style which Dvorak preserved in this work (in his later violin and cello concertos he left out the cadenza altogether).
The second movement in slow tempo comprises two fundamental themes, of which the first is unusual for its almost complete absence of more marked rhythmical elements: apart from a slight surge at the end of the last bar, it consists entirely of crochet values.
The second subject, in its melodic ornamentation, gentle instrumentation of the orchestral accompaniment, and in its overall character, recalls the free movements of Chopin's piano concertos. The middle part of the movement is certainly more dramatic and is constructed on the basis of the final rhythmical element of the main theme. The third movement treats three themes, the first two typified by strong rhythmical ideas. The first is stylized in the manner of a toccata, while the second is almost dance-like in character. The third theme introduces an effective contrast in its lyrical melodic line. In terms of form, the movement is a combination of sonata form and rondo.
Other Album available // Dvořák: Slavonic Dances Op. 46 & 72 by Karel Šejna
🎧 Qobuz cutt.ly/0e5xBdOw Tidal cutt.ly/Fe5xBWzH
🎧 Apple Music cutt.ly/ee5xBCWu Deezer cutt.ly/ee5xBCWu
🎧 Amazon Music cutt.ly/6e5xNVd8 Spotify cutt.ly/Oe5xMdkP
🎧 TH-cam Music cutt.ly/ce5xMOVH
Antonín Dvořák PLAYLIST (reference recordings): th-cam.com/video/XI5Jsheka40/w-d-xo.html
I have often revisited this concerto in hope of really ‘getting it’, but alas never did, not even in Richter’s hands. But this, with Firkusny and Kubelik both, is at last the magnificent Dvorak I have been looking for. A wonderful, lively and deeply lyrical work in its own right, and a fascinating forerunner to the great violin and cello concertos to follow. Many thanks to whoever believed in the composition and performance enough to remaster it and post it here. Many thanks !
While Dvorak's music for solo piano represent a considerable share of his musical legacy, and his group of chamber music works with piano are also a significant part of this, the Piano Concerto in G minor is his only work for piano and orchestra in his entire oeuvre. If we discount his early concerto for cello with piano accompanime it, it is also the first of the composer's three instrumental concerto's (later followed by the violin and cello concertos). Dvorak was a fine pianist, but never a virtuoso in the true sense of the word. He was well aware of this, and accordingly restricted his occasional appearances on the concert platform to performances within an ensemble or together with vocal soloists whom he would accompany at the keyboard. To this day we are unaware of the reasons which led him to choose the piano as the solo instrument for the first of his concertante works with orchestra. Although there is no direct documentation in existence, Dvorak literature often states that the composer - at that time not very well known - opted for the piano concertante form for "practical" reasons: he had great hopes in its performance by the excellent young pianist Karel Slavkovsky, who showed a lively interest in new works by the Czech composers and took the initiative by presenting them at his concerts. This supposition is also supported by the fact that Slavkovsky did indeed perform the work's premiere later on. Dvorak worked on the concerto for about one month, at the end of August and beginning of September 1876, soon after completing his third cycle of Moravian Duets (op. 32). He dedicated the piece to leading aesthetician and music critic of his day Eduard Hanslick as an expression of his appreciation for the attention the latter devoted to his work.
The final shape of the piano concerto was the result of countless revisions and adjustments the composer made while he was finishing the work at the end of the summer of 1876, and of many other undertaken before its publication (1883). In the intervening period the score passed through the hands of a number of publishers and pianists and it is feasible that the composer decided to make certain revisions on the basis of their observations. At the beginning of the 21 century the Moravian Provincial Museum in Brno unearthed a hitherto unknown unknown copy of the concerto which proved to be an early version of the score. Research carried out by musicologist Ludmila Smidova shows that the final version reflects much greater elaboration of the solo part, giving rise to a more ostentatious virtuosity and a broader range of expressional means, also a more colorful instrumentation, and interventions in the musical development of the thematic texture. The original version of the work thus provides, above all, an important document of the composer's creative process.
The first movement of the concerto is written in a broadly diverging sonata form, which treats 3 central themes. The mood of the movement is chiefly determined by the nature of the main and closing themes, typical for their atmosphere of majestic solemnity. An effective contrast is created by the secondary theme in B flat major, whose carefree spirit conjures up the world of the Slavonic Dances. The complexly structured development section is one of the longest in the composer's oeuvre. It comprises two major sections, the first of which treats the subsidiary theme, while the second works with the main theme. At the end of the development we are given a glimmer of a highly distinctive motif (first in the French horns and immediately afterwards in the oboes) which, in its rhythmical contour, is strongly reminiscent of the main theme of the first movement of the New World Symphony. After the regular recapitulations comes a solo cadenza as one of the few external traits of the concertante style which Dvorak preserved in this work (in his later violin and cello concertos he left out the cadenza altogether).
The second movement in slow tempo comprises two fundamental themes, of which the first is unusual for its almost complete absence of more marked rhythmical elements: apart from a slight surge at the end of the last bar, it consists entirely of crochet values.
The second subject, in its melodic ornamentation, gentle instrumentation of the orchestral accompaniment, and in its overall character, recalls the free movements of Chopin's piano concertos. The middle part of the movement is certainly more dramatic and is constructed on the basis of the final rhythmical element of the main theme. The third movement treats three themes, the first two typified by strong rhythmical ideas. The first is stylized in the manner of a toccata, while the second is almost dance-like in character. The third theme introduces an effective contrast in its lyrical melodic line. In terms of form, the movement is a combination of sonata form and rondo.
Other Album available // Dvořák: Slavonic Dances Op. 46 & 72 by Karel Šejna
🎧 Qobuz cutt.ly/0e5xBdOw Tidal cutt.ly/Fe5xBWzH
🎧 Apple Music cutt.ly/ee5xBCWu Deezer cutt.ly/ee5xBCWu
🎧 Amazon Music cutt.ly/6e5xNVd8 Spotify cutt.ly/Oe5xMdkP
🎧 TH-cam Music cutt.ly/ce5xMOVH
Come in tutta la musica slava( anche la russa) alla “ fragorosita’ strumentale nel sottofondo vi è sempre una nota di nostalgia ( soprattutto movimento lento) una esecuzione superba che esprime a pieno la creatività dell’autore. Da 10 e lode 😮
For me, this piano concerto by Dvořák represents only his initial attempt to write a concerto, a beautiful practice, a good improvisation, but his success in this genre was only achieved in his two later concertos, for violin and cello. Listening to this recording for me is, therefore, only an act of curiosity and respect for the great figure that Antonín Dvořák is for music, even though the beautiful interpretation is minimally pleasant, given the worthy recognition of the effort and talent of Rudolf Firkušný at piano, this time accompanied by the also great interpreter of Dvořák, Rafael Kubelík, conducting the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln in 1960. My applause for this restoration by the Classical Music/Reference Recording channel, which never disappoints, in yet another excellent work.
♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
💖🎼💖
Gostei.
Il s'agit bien du WDR (radio Cologne) et non du NDR (radio Hambourg). Dès 1945, il n'y avait qu'un seul studio (NWDR) et il a scindé en 1956.