Frederick Delius - Piano Concerto in C minor

- Composer: Frederick Theodore Albert Delius (29 January 1862 -- 10 June 1934)
- Orchestra: BBC Symphony Orchestra
- Conductor: Sir John Pritchard
- Soloist: Clifford Curzon
- Year of recording: 1981
Piano Concerto in C minor, RT vii/4, written and revised between 1897-1907.
00:00 - I. Allegro non troppo
11:12 - II. Largo
16:40 - III. Tempo primo
This inspired but seldom performed work was originally written between 1897-1904, in a conventional piano concerto format, but when it was revised in 1907 Delius dropped the third movement in favor of a new movement which is in fact a re-statement of the themes of the first two movements.
- The first movement, greatly influenced by Grieg, is filled with typical gestures - crashing chords, scale runs, broken octaves, etc. - but introduces some strong thematic material - a peculiar forte theme built of descending chromatic phrases, and an interesting secondary theme in running triplets.
- However, when we get to the second movement, the sound of the Delius of the later years starts to shine forth (after an almost sentimental start), and beautiful transcendent textures built on simple melodies start to appear, together with breathtaking, sweeping orchestral passages filled with high strings and rich brass colors like Richard Strauss. Delius' particular sense of modal harmony, akin to but different from Grieg's, provides many surprises.
- At the end, we realize that the "concerto" has instead been in the form of an English "fantasy" - for example, passages that seem to be concluding lead to soft solos in another key, the piano is suddenly accompaniment to solo violin or to a group of unison cellos, the strings descend in soft shimmers in the middle of a piano solo - the "form" is a poetic wandering.
A consultation with the Hungarian pianist Theodor Szántó, a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni, led to very substantial revisions in the solo part. The first performance of this version was played by Szántó, at a Prom Concert in London on 22 October 1907, under Henry Wood. Szántó received the dedication of the work.

[@tuberobotto]

Anything with Clifford Curzon MUST be good and a 'must hear'. Thanks for this rare music upload.

[@pianomanhere]

You, Mednatculus and others never stop astonishing me with your uploads... Keep up the great work .. I totally forgot that Delius had written a piano concerto until I saw this posting... Then again, I'm getting old, so forgetfulness is no surprise.. Cheers.

[@daveluttinen2547]

I do enjoy reading the score along with the performance. Thank you for putting that on the screen for us to read along. I did enjoy the live performance, too. Having heard the work before, seeing the technical skill necessary to play increased the appreciation of Delius' composition.

[@jacobbass6226]

I love this it’s so dramatic and powerful and gorgeous. I LOVE IT.

[@davidrehak3539]

Frederick Delius:c-moll Zongoraverseny
1.Allegro non troppo 00:05
2.Largo 11:14
3.Tempo primo 18:58
Clifford Curzon-zongora
BBC Szimfonikus Zenekara
Vezényel:John Pritchard

[@franciscovivanco6264]

obviamente aun no encontraba su ulterior y magnifico estilo

[@themoonfleesthroughclouds]

What an absolute masterpiece.

[@toucc9638]

hi

[@themoonfleesthroughclouds]

@@toucc9638 haiii i'm tryna act super cute and feminine but it's not working

[@toucc9638]

@@themoonfleesthroughclouds it's working

[@toucc9638]

Hi

[@themoonfleesthroughclouds]

@@toucc9638 why Toucc

[@bugatti103]

Bravo!

[@gerardbegni2806]

C minor is generally considered as a dramatic tonality, which could not be suited to the usual Delius' inspiration. But we should not forget that Delius used a language of his own, with free chains of chords and cadenzas, so the "dark" C minor evaporates from the beginning and we can hear a serious but not at all dramatic score of Delius (at least in the Romantic conception of the word), well in line with his usual inspiration.

[@harryandruschak2843]

"Like: on 11 February 2016.

[@ruramikael]

Is the original version recorded?

[@geoffwalker9392]

www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA67296

[@MichaelConwayBaker]

Now I know where Dimitri Tiomkin got many of his ideas!

[@MrMjp58]

This has never sounded much like a Delius piece to me. I read somewhere that it was only partly by him?

[@Leomerya12]

24:03
I thought I was listening to the soundtrack to "Interstellar". I wonder if Hans Zimmer has heard this concerto.
SOURCE(S):
th-cam.com/video/YF1eYbfbH5k/w-d-xo.html

[@rogernortman9219]

Here we have a concerto by who I feel is a depressing impressionist, so far not too bad.

[@gerardbegni2806]

The tonality of C mainor is susally considered as dark and dramatic, and as such not in line with what we may expect from Delius. But we should not forget that, whilae keeping the tonal language, Delius invented cahins od chaords, cadenzas, etc. which change totally the usual feeling of tonality so the "dramatic" language disappears from the beginning (at least in the sense which Romatisme understood) and we find the usual language of Delius, Even the moderate movement is not familiar with what we expect from its key, Db major. The orchestral language is a part of this exprssion of Delius' art. Delius knows exactly here what he can expect from the synergy between piano and orchestra.

[@lucasa4301]

What's going on with this performance? Piano and orchestra are consistently not together...

[@canman5060]

They kind of fell asleep !

[@zanexiao4488]

"micro-syncopation" between soloist/orchestra starting from the first few measures

[@jacobbass6226]

It’s the interpretation of the piano player and the orchestra. If you didn’t have the score you wouldn’t notice.

[@Andrew.Helmick]

in my opinion this performance is not the greatest both due to the soloist and the orchestra

[@themoonfleesthroughclouds]

@@Andrew.Helmick Justin Bird has a great performance of it. It's on TH-cam.

[@jb1980ist]

This performance is a mess.

[@stevehinnenkamp5625]

The piece simply has no clue about what it trying to be. Obviously the wrong choice for a free spirited individualist like Delius to Express himself.

[@pedrofuster9161]

It's all a matter of familiarity. Rather than the piece not knowing what it wants to be, it could be that you are not familiar with what the piece is. And I say this even considering that you are probably basing this judgment on objective parameters.

[@stevehinnenkamp5625]

@@pedrofuster9161 Thank you, for your intelligent comment. I will adhere to your advice and listen Delius with different expectations.

[@rickdeckard1075]

@@stevehinnenkamp5625 lol if youre that easily dissuaded from your own opinion, why comment at all