Dorian Recordings

DOR-90172

schumann
CONCERTO FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRAIN A MINOR, OP.54

brahms
CONCERTO NO.1 FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA IN D MINOR, OP.15

RECORDED LIVE IN CONCERT

Ivan Moravec - Piano
Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Eduardo Mata - Conductor

DOR-90172 Cover - 19920 Bytes

In 1841 Schumann was at work on a piece for piano and orchestra that intended to explore poetic feelings rather than virtuosity. "I cannot compose a concerto for virtuosos," he wrote to his pianist-wife Clara Wieck, "but must light on something different." Schumann described the result (Phantasie in A minor) as a self-contained movement - "something between symphony, concerto and grand sonata." In 1845, because a full-length concerto was more marketable than a one movement work, he added an Intermezzo and the finale.

In January 1859, after four years of compositional and personal struggle, Brahms presented his most ambitious work to date. The massive protean Piano Concerto, Op. 15, emerged from the ashes of the problematic D-minor Symphony. Conceived after Schumann's 1854 suicide attempt, the work started as a sonata for two pianos but then evolved into a tragic symphony of Herculean proportions. It wasn't until shortly before Schumann's death in 1856 that Brahms combined the resources of piano and orchestra to create a piano concerto of symphonic stature and emotional intensity. In Op.15 Brahms fulfilled Schumann's 1839 call for a genius who would "show us in a newer and more brilliant way, how orchestra and piano may be combined."
- J. Knighten-Smit

robert schumann (1810-1856)
CONCERTO FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA IN A MINOR, OP.54
[1] Allegro affettuoso
[2] Intermezzo: Andantino grazioso
[3] Allegro vivace

johannes brahms (1833-1997)
CONCERTO NO.1 FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA IN D MINOR, OP.15
[4] Maestoso
[5] Adagio
[6] Rondo: Allegro non troppo

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