Thursday 9 August 2012

Grieg - Piano Concerto [Tanyel/Burgos-London Symphony Orchestra] 

A regular work in my Blog, and this performance clocks up its third entry [14th July 2011 & 22nd January 2010], it's one of my most favourite Piano Concertos, and i never tire of hearing it, and this is a great disc and performance of the work to boot.

Seta Tanyel is Turkish i guess, she recorded this disc in 1990 on the now defunct Collins Classics label, a lovely little Classical label, the visuals for this disc are fantastic, a lovely inventive portrait, nice use of the arms, lovely skin tones, and it's that blue background which is incredible, it really makes the subject stand out, and the shock of curly hair, nicely placed lettering / logo, it's a real quality product.

The middle movement is my favourite, it has what is arguably his best tune [apart from maybe Morning Mood from Peer Gynt], and the first movement is a powerhouse of invention, really thrilling, so surprisingly i enjoyed the third movement the best on this listen, it's a bravura finale, however there's a quiet interlude of magic about a third of the way in, where the themes from the middle movement come back to haunt us again [2:44+], and that delicate dreamy piano playing by Tanyel weaves its magic once again [3:23-6:00], very substantial, not merely a whiff, but a full blown aroma, the ending is tremendous, all the stops are let out in one glorious rumbustious finale [9:22-10:36], i especially like the pianos hammering out the deep chords [9:59-10:09], a great end to a great Concerto.

Here's Julia Fischer playing the third movement on YouTube.