Czerny : Romantic piano concerto Volume 71

Description

What to do with the Piano Concerto after Mozart? Czerny poses the question as if those by Beethoven, of whom he was a student, had not existed. Strange, and even more so the answer he provides by fitting into the model of the narrative concerto illustrated by Field or Ries, and whose initiator was Weber with his Konzertstück. Not an anachronism, but another branch of Romanticism perfectly illustrated by the Concerto in A minor of 1829, whose Adagio is a marvel, and as played by Howard Shelley, as if daydreaming, without seeming to touch it! There is no better guide than him in these often pedantic works, which hesitate between two styles, can get lost in showy effects like the military tone that the Concerto in F of 1820 wears a bit too virtuously: the orchestra and pianist are a bit too much on parade. But finally, if one is artistic enough, this music reveals its beauties, and Shelley brings them to life with almost childlike simplicity, engaging in abundant discourse with his musicians from the antipodes. It is truly to understand this in-between world where the first Romanticism takes shape, and when the virtuosic style comes into play, as in the capricious Rondo brillant, an entire vanished universe resurfaces, delightful, moving, so finely resurrected (Discophilia - Artalinna.com). (Jean-Charles Hoffelé)