Customer Reviews

Scharwenka: Piano Concerto No. 1; Paderewski: Piano Concerto; Balakirev: Reminiscences of "A Life for the Czar"

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This is a brilliant recording of two of the best Romantic concerti by a truly great pianist. Earl Wild is a fire-breathing super-virtuoso and plays these works with total authority. His Scharwenka is much better than Seta Tanyel's. I love this CD. Get it, you will be very pleased.

The 19th Century nourished the virtuosity and made it a tradition. The nationalism fever aroused from the same entrails of this long stage as the natural descendent of its previous Romantic movement. The inner voices of every simple nation now wished to be listened. The names of Liszt and Schumann fed and inflamed the imagination and the inspiration here and there. The show business that the famous match between Thalberg and Liszt in Paris was a true accelerator for the multitude of Piano Concerts dedicated to exploit the pyrotechnic pianism. Many of these works lacked profundity or expression sense, but who really cared about it?. The febrile imagination of Berlioz shone, the fashion pianist became the crowds icon, and the spectacle literally loaded the most relevant Hall Concerts. The pirouettes, octaves and arpeggios deformed seriously the true essence and motive of the music, degrading it at the same level of a circus. Nicolo Paganini was possibly the herald and skillful pioneer that introduced this concept, a direct consequence, perhaps of the Opera 's irruption conceived as the new and sumptuous spectacle for the mass, a doubtful feat for many derived from the French Revolution. Now you did not need an illustrated or cultivated soul to assist to the Opera.

But inside this countless list of composers there were happy exceptions, and Scharwenka was one of them. He composed this Concert at 27, in 1877. Paderewski 's Piano Concert was the far descendent of a Polish tradition initiated by Chopin. That conception seemed to fade in the Second Half of the Century, when just a few composers could resist the empting dashing of the waves of the easy fortune, far from the tinsel and the truculence. Gabriel Faure, Edward Grieg, Edward Mac Dowell, Charles Valentin Alkan, Christian Sinding, Nikolai Medtner and Ignaz Moscheles were perhaps the little host of renegades who were not dragged for the mainstream.

Earl Wild seems to have inherited this trademark in his artistic vein. All his life was consecrated to make us listen and even discover those little treasures hidden bellow the carpet `s memory and the forgetfulness. That was always a big challenge for the audiences who were much more tolerant with new forms of Symphonic audacities, adopting a major profile respect the new piano works. That is why the most of composers of the Century XX , decided to compose symphonic works and once they were widely known, then composed piano scores.

Buy this record. It will be for you absolutely rewarding.

In recent years, the Hyperion Romantic Piano Concertos series has presented a number of entertaining if not 'great' piano concerto works, as did the Vox series from years before by M. Ponti. Here are a couple of true gems from Earl Wild,of works which can stand with ANY of the late 19th century/early 20th century works for piano and orchestra. To find these, you may have to go to Naxos or Hyperion,
but these older recordings are sublime.

There is no comparison in how Wild plays piano! I also own the Piers Lane recording of the Padarewski concerto and Wild makes Lane seems like a student beginner on the piano. The fervor Wild has, his passion that goes into the piano keys and comes out through my speakers is unrivaled. Get this CD as long as it is still available, you will not regret it and this is a legacy to leave for your children for sure.