Search results
Sep 13, 2021 · It’s a classic Carnegie Hall moment—it’s when the audience knows something special is about to begin. Those special moments have been happening since the Hall opened in 1891. There are thousands of piano concertos, but which are performed most frequently at Carnegie Hall?
- Rachmaninov – Piano Concerto No.2. This colossus of the piano repertoire topped the annual Classic FM Hall of Fame for the first time in 2001 and hasn’t strayed far since, reaching that No.1 spot an impressive eight times so far, since the chart began in 1996.
- Beethoven – Piano Concerto No.5 (‘Emperor’) We all know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but in this case you absolutely can: Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.5 absolutely lives up to its imperial nickname.
- Grieg – Piano Concerto in A minor. The great Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg only completed one piano concerto during his lifetime, and it has become one of the most recognised in the world (thanks, in part, to the iconic comedy sketch by Morecambe and Wise, and the late André Previn).
- Shostakovich – Piano Concerto No.2. Shostakovich himself downplayed this concerto, saying it had “no redeeming artistic merits”, but audiences have always begged to differ.
- In The Beginning...
- 1880s – An Idea Is Born
- 1890s – The Hall Opens
- 1920s-1950s – An Uncertain Future
- 1960s – The Fight to Avoid Demolition
- Which Pianists Have appeared at Carnegie?
In 1871 conductor, composer, and violinist Leopold Damrosch emigrated from Germany to New York. Damrosch had joined Liszt in 1857 as a violin soloist with the Weimar Court Orchestra and was the dedicatee of Liszt’s tone poem Tasso. He was a friend of Wagner and a major proponent of music of the ‘new’ German School. A dynamic presence on the New Yor...
After the death of their father, Frank and Walter Damrosch took over the Oratorio Society of New York and the Symphony Society. Andrew Carnegie was a supporter of both organisations, and during an Atlantic crossing in the late 1880s, Walter, a friend of the Carnegies (Mrs Carnegie was a member of the Oratorio Society), approached Andrew with the id...
Unsurprisingly, most written histories of Carnegie Hall ignore the fact that its illustrious history actually began with a piano recital, citing instead the ‘official’ grand opening of the main hall, a concert on 5 May 1891 featuring Walter Damrosch and special guest of honour Tchaikovsky. But it was a pianist who opened the hall, and another piani...
The Carnegie family retained ownership of the hall until 1925, when it was sold to property developer Robert E Simon, whose family kept it until 1960. Simon’s heirs in turn attempted to sell the property to the New York Philharmonic, which declined the offer on account of its impending move to the new Philharmonic Hall (now Avery Fischer Hall) at L...
Yet by 1960 Carnegie Hall, now located on a prime piece of mid-town commercial real estate, was marked for demolition. Violinist Isaac Stern led the crusade to save Carnegie Hall, which was purchased by the City of New York from the Simon family and reorganised in its current configuration as an independent not-for-profit corporation. In 1962 the b...
Death backstage! It is practically impossible to know exactly how many pianists have performed at Carnegie Hall in the years since 1891. Archivist Gino Francesconi recalls that for a 2003 exhibition, ‘I drove my assistants crazy getting together a list of every pianist ever heard at the hall. We stopped around 4,000.’ One noted pianist, Simon Barer...
Apr 7, 2021 · Piano Concerto No. 1 Krystian Zimerman, piano; Berlin Philharmonic; Simon Rattle, conductor (Deutsche Grammophon)
- Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4 – and No. 5 too. Composers have been trying to beat Beethoven for 200 years. Few succeed. Choosing the best of his five piano concertos is an unenviable task – and so I suggest both his Fourth and Fifth concertos as equal crowning glories of the repertoire.
- Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 2. Come on, don’t be mean – this concerto is perfect. It’s almost impossible to fault one page, one phrase, one note in one of the greatest piano concertos.
- Mozart: Piano Concerto In C Minor, K491. Mozart’s 27 piano concertos comprise the largest body of piano concertos that are regularly heard in concert halls, although (scandalously) a relatively small handful are regularly performed.
- Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1. This concerto took two different forms – symphony, then two-piano sonata – before settling down as a concerto. It was profoundly affected by the fate of Robert Schumann.
People also ask
Who wrote the most popular piano concertos?
What is the Best Piano Concerto?
Who wrote the Piano Concerto in a minor?
How many piano concertos are there?
Thursday, February 3, 2022. An introduction to 10 of the greatest piano concertos – from Mozart to Rachmaninov – with highly recommended recordings. Mozart Piano Concerto No 27. Piotr Anderszewski pf Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
Nov 3, 2023 · Johannes Brahms – Piano Concerto No. 2. Brahms’ Piano Concerto No. 2 came more than 20 years after his first, but it was worth the wait by all accounts. Everything about this piano concerto is unapologetically epic! Everything from the first note to the last is played with purpose and intent.
