Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Five concerto favorites
Sibelius, Elgar, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahams, Korngold, Rachmaninoff
Rachmaninoff looms over every list of favorite concertos.
Some big-time concertos, such as Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 are coming up in the next few months. I wonder, if I had to pick five “desert island” concertos would any of these three be included? Here are my five all-time favorite concertos. These are not the greatest concertos of all time because who can make such a determination? These are but five concertos I have enjoyed the most over the years. They are in no particular order.
Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto was a late-comer to my five. For years I didn’t get it. I would read that it was the preeminent concerto in the violin repertoire but I couldn’t hear it. The Sibelius is a sneaky difficult piece for the soloist. It is not overtly flashy but requires extreme mastery of tone and emotional intelligence. Without these, a performance of the Sibelius can become rather tedious.
Video:
Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D Minor
I first experienced Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in the 1998 film Hilary and Jackie. The Elgar was a signature piece of cellist Jacqueline Du Pre; Jackie, and the film showcased the music quite well. Since then I’ve listened to it as recorded by several cellists but I keep coming back to the Du Pre version conducted by her then-husband Daniel Barenboim.
Video:
Elgar: Cello Concerto
Another film that stirred my early classical emotions was, of course, Amadeus. From that film, I took Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 21. Yes, I understand that this already brings my list to four but I simply can’t pick one over the other so I’m counting those two as a tie and so this list of five is now six.
My relationship with Pytor Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 goes back to the sixth grade when I received a compilation set of classical music LPs for Christmas. Tchaikovsky was featured heavily and his piano concerto is has been with me longer than any other here.
Video:
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1
Before we get to the final concerto, here a few honorable mentions. Of the five Beethoven piano concertos, the fifth gets most of the flowers. However, I find his Piano Concerto No. 4 to be my favorite. The second movement is an existential masterpiece. Johannes Brahms’s Violin Concerto* might be amongst my five were we taking about five concertos to hear performed live by a master violinist. As a recorded experience I find it to be lacking. Erich Korngold’s Violin Concerto is underrated. Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G has the distinction of being my personal soundtrack when I hit the emotional rock bottom of my life.
My final favorite concerto In Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. From the ominous brooding of the opening measures to the agonizing beauty of the second movement to the energetic optimism of the final movement, this concerto is perfect. I prefer the recording with pianist Earl Wild.
Video:
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2
Here's something you might be interested in.
Five concerto favorites
Sibelius, Elgar, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahams, Korngold, Rachmaninoff
Five concerto favorites
Sibelius, Elgar, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahams, Korngold, Rachmaninoff
Rachmaninoff looms over every list of favorite concertos.
Some big-time concertos, such as Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 are coming up in the next few months. I wonder, if I had to pick five “desert island” concertos would any of these three be included? Here are my five all-time favorite concertos. These are not the greatest concertos of all time because who can make such a determination? These are but five concertos I have enjoyed the most over the years. They are in no particular order.
Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto was a late-comer to my five. For years I didn’t get it. I would read that it was the preeminent concerto in the violin repertoire but I couldn’t hear it. The Sibelius is a sneaky difficult piece for the soloist. It is not overtly flashy but requires extreme mastery of tone and emotional intelligence. Without these, a performance of the Sibelius can become rather tedious.
Video:
Sibelius: Violin Concerto in D Minor
I first experienced Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in the 1998 film Hilary and Jackie. The Elgar was a signature piece of cellist Jacqueline Du Pre; Jackie, and the film showcased the music quite well. Since then I’ve listened to it as recorded by several cellists but I keep coming back to the Du Pre version conducted by her then-husband Daniel Barenboim.
Video:
Elgar: Cello Concerto
Another film that stirred my early classical emotions was, of course, Amadeus. From that film, I took Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 21. Yes, I understand that this already brings my list to four but I simply can’t pick one over the other so I’m counting those two as a tie and so this list of five is now six.
My relationship with Pytor Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 goes back to the sixth grade when I received a compilation set of classical music LPs for Christmas. Tchaikovsky was featured heavily and his piano concerto is has been with me longer than any other here.
Video:
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1
Before we get to the final concerto, here a few honorable mentions. Of the five Beethoven piano concertos, the fifth gets most of the flowers. However, I find his Piano Concerto No. 4 to be my favorite. The second movement is an existential masterpiece. Johannes Brahms’s Violin Concerto* might be amongst my five were we taking about five concertos to hear performed live by a master violinist. As a recorded experience I find it to be lacking. Erich Korngold’s Violin Concerto is underrated. Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G has the distinction of being my personal soundtrack when I hit the emotional rock bottom of my life.
My final favorite concerto In Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. From the ominous brooding of the opening measures to the agonizing beauty of the second movement to the energetic optimism of the final movement, this concerto is perfect. I prefer the recording with pianist Earl Wild.
Video:
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2