Grieg - Piano Concerto [Vogt/Rattle-City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra]This is such a regular coupling for these two Concertos, and yet it's so apt, the German Lars Vogt was 22 when he made these recordings, he seems to stick to the German repertoire, but i would love to hear him play some Chopin.
I like the booklet cover [by Rory Carnegie], very nice colours, blue and purple / mauve go well together, very nice shadows and contours, the way Rattle and Vogt make a foreground / background relationship, even though i believe it's probably a composite photo.
The first movement Allegro is thrilling, however Vogt's rubato seems mannered in places, too slow in some passages, too fast in others, and the transition is awkward at times, this is a small complaint, as so much sounds just right, the opening fanfare after the drumroll is the ultimate way to announce your Concerto!, i like the deep piano bass thud! [0:14], very well caught on this recording, there's a nice flowing lyrical passage early on [2:46-3:56], very reflective and inward, notice the background bassoon that adds wonderful colour [3:07-3:24], this whole passage comes back roughly 5 minutes later [7:27-8:38], but this time the horn adding the background colour instead [7:49-8:07], it's only because of writing about the music i listen to, that it forces me to analyse passages like this, and discover the beauties of structure and composition!, therefore i enjoy the music so much more the next time i listen to it, because i now know what wonderful things to listen out for, in my mind listening and writing go together hand in hand!, i'm loving my Blog as much as my music.
Here's Thibaudet / Dudamel playing the first movement on YouTube.
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