Pianophilia

The 19th century piano sonata:

Josef KRUG-WALDSEE (German composer, 1859-1915)
Sonate in C moll op. 38 Please take this without prejudice, i.e. don't say: "He should have composed in a more advanced, late-romantic idom!", or: "Why did he use such a simple figure in the beginning of the last movement?"
Simply take it for what it is: a well-composed sonata of a surely more or less conservative 19th century composer. Almost classical in its habitus (there are slight Chopin and Liszt reminiscences, though). Partly convincing, partly all too commonplace ideas. Slightly congenial with the sonata of C.G.P. Graedener.
Nevertheless our musical picture of the 19th century would not be complete without works like this one.
Comments welcome!!!

alfor wrote:[quote="fleubis"...Sounds a bit more like Schumann to my ears, and a most excellent set of pieces.

Yes, Schumann influence especially in No.2 Canzona and Brahms in No. 1 Capriccio and No.6 Ballade. Also a bit of Chopin in No.4 Etude.

Also of a fine pianistic calibre:
Praeludien und Capricen op. 26
http://www.mediafire.com/?3gwobmmxmay
(obviously this file did not find its way to the pianophilia archive!)[/quote]
Agreed! I jumped on this when it appeared last year. Very Brahmsian. By the way, I have no idea why your file is so large--nine is only about 3K and the resolution appears the same....

alfor wrote:The 19th century piano sonata:

Josef KRUG-WALDSEE (German composer, 1859-1915)
Sonate in C moll op. 38

Krug-Waldsee Sonate op.38.pdf

Comments welcome!!!

While not a heavyweight piece, there is a nice balance between the first movement and the last. This composer is not the first to have written a light rondo as a finale after a somewhat complex opening movement. That said, he has good contrasting material within the last movement and the intermezzo offers surprising development of a rather banal theme.

Thanks for sharing this interesting piece, Alfor.

Friedrich GERNSHEIM
Concert für das Pianoforte mit Begleitung des Orchesters oder eines zweiten Pianoforte op. 16
(arr. piano solo) With G.'s excellent early Piano Quartet op. 6 in my ear, I was slightly disappointed with this work. But as with my last posting, I can only repeat: take it without prejudice and you will find a lot of fine music in it.
More a chamber than a virtuoso concerto. Gernsheim is a romantic classicist, which links him to Brahms.
In this concerto you will even find a lot of Beethoven-like passages.
In his later works, G. adopted more elements of Brahms' style, without sounding too specifically "Brahmsian". Imagine a 60 year old Mendelssohn adopting Brahms style and you will have a good picture of works like Gernsheim's wonderful Piano Quartet op. 47.
Many of Gernsheim's works (especially his excellent chamber music works) are real gems of the 19th century and their neglect is hardly explainable.

Henryk MELCER(-Szczawiński) Polish pianist, composer, conductor (1869-1928)
Prelude
Quasi Mazurka
Valse a la Chopin
NocturneMakes appetite for more! Style may be compared to that of Friedman (minus the Viennese flair)

Thanks for the Gernsheim Concerto ! I heard it last time, i must say ... quite an intro !

Tony

What's not to like about the Gernsheim Concerto? Well, it is harmonically rather pedestrian, but there are many interesting moments and lots of flashy piano writing and appropriate for the time it was written. Maybe Tony can tell us if there is a recording of this piece somewhere.

fleubis wrote:What's not to like about the Gernsheim Concerto? Well, it is harmonically rather pedestrian, but there are many interesting moments and lots of flashy piano writing and appropriate for the time it was written. Maybe Tony can tell us if there is a recording of this piece somewhere.

I do have a recording actually. I will be working on a video on youtube with this particular concerto one day, so i can share it with everyone.

Tony

Gernsheim - Concerto do op.16 - Triendl O.,Nurenberg SO,Szulc R. - 010208

http://www.mediafire.com/?d4bet9erf14e5gi

Thanks a million, Caprotti.

And thanks very much for the score, Alfor.


jeremy

Woop, caprotti beats me to it

Tony