Siegfried Langaard
Koncert (nr. 1) for klaver og orkester i E-mol
1. Allegro maestoso
2. Adagio tranquillo
3. Maestoso – Allegro
Rued Langaard
“Fra Arild” Koncert for klaver og orkester frit efter Siegfried Langgaard
4. Klipper [Cliffs] (Allegro)
5. Brændinger [Surf] (Quasi focoso sempre)
6. Stjernehimmel [Starry Skies] (Quasi stesso tempo, piu maestoso)
7. Høstens Tid [Harvest Time] (Molto allegro. som stormskyer over Kullen i august) [Molto allegro, like storm clouds over Kullen in August]
Father and son: Siegfried Langgaard (1852-1914) Rued Langgaard (1893-1952) ©
By Mogens Wenzel Andresen/Bent Viinholt Nielsen
Siegfried Langgaard was a pupil of the Norwegian-born piano virtuoso and teacher. Edmund Neupert, who for many years taught at The Royal Danish Academy of Music where his numerous studies for piano played an important part in the training of pianists, also many years after his death. It was Edmund Neupert who gave the first performance of Grieg’s Piano Concerto ( I 868). Franz Nerurda, the Czechoslovakian cellist and composer and a significant figure in Danish music at that time, was one of Langgaard’s teachers. Langgaard received his theoretical training from Gade, Gebauer, and J.PE. Hartmann, later studying the piano with Franz Liszt in Weimar.
Langgaard had a nervous temperament and soon gave up public appearances as a pianist. concentrating instead on teaching. He composed some minor piano pieces in a brilliant, virtuoso style, some songsand two concertos for piano and orchestra, the second of which is also available in a version for two pianos.
The first piano concerto’s exact date of composition is unknown, but it was completed about 1885. Oddly enough it has never been performed before. even though the score was published (Wilhelm Hansens Musik Forlag). It is a true high or late-romantic virtuoso concerto, especially well written for the solo instrument, brilliantly orchestrated, melodically inspired and certainly not without a personal character.
The first movement begins with five bars’ orchestral introduction, which bring in a marked, somewhat angular theme, which is then followed by massive chords on the piano. It is not inconceivable that Tchaikovsky’s B flat-minor Piano Concerto inspired the work. The secondmovement is in D flat major and begins with a theme which bears a certain resemblance to the chorale ” Sleepers wake the watch-cry peeleth” . This adagio is an extremely beautiful, melodically captivating and evocative piece.
The solo piano opens the finale with heavy, massive chords, which drive the key of E major home with a sledge-hammer so to speak. The orchestra enters with a rhythmically marked theme accompanied by piano figurations.
The concerto is orchestrated for a normal romantic orchestra: doubled wood wind, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, 1 tuba, timpani and strings.
The solo part of the concert was played once, as will be apparent from the following letter from Franz Liszt to Siegfried Langgaard:
“Sehr geehrter Herr, Die zunehmende Schwächung meiner Augen erlaubt mir kaum mehr Noten zu lesen. Ein vortrefflicher Pianist, Herr Stavenhagen, spielte mir lhr Concert, – ein kräftiges, heroisches Stück, dessen Erfolg wünschst freundlichst
F. Liszt 7ten May, 86, Budapest.”
(Dear Sir, Owing to the increasing weakness of my eyesight, I am hardly able to read music. An excellent pianist, Mr. Stavenhagen, played your concerto to me – a powerful, heroic piece, whose success is sincerely wished by F. Liszt 7th May, 86, Budapest).
Bernhard Stavenhagen (1862-1914) was a German pianist, one of Liszt’s last pupils and an outstanding virtuoso. He gave concerts in Scandinavia in 1894 and composed piano music and a couple of concertos with orchestra.
RELEASE DATE: August 2000
CATALOGUE NUMBER: DACOCD 535
EAN: 5709499535004
