Friedrich Kiel - Koncert Fortepianowy
Published in 1864
Soloist - Friedrich-Wilhelm Schnurr
Conductor - Alfred Walter
Orchestra - Rundfunkorchester Hannover des NDR
0:00 - Allegro, maestoso e con spirito
14:08 - Notturno: Adagio con moto
19:02 - Allegro vivace
Bio
Friedrich Kiel (1821 - 1885) was a composer and music teacher who was born in Bad Laasphe, but spent most of his life in Berlin. Kiel was an accomplished pianist, learning the instrument mostly by himself. He eventually received a scholarship to study in Berlin, where he would be hired as a teacher at the Stern conservatory and eventually help co-found the Hochschule fuer Musik.
Kiel's true genius was his chamber output, but as far as this channel's interest in Kiel is concerned, his greatest lasting impact comes through his students. Both Ignacy Jan Paderewski and Zygmunt Noskowski were students of his. They were two of Poland's most important musical figures in the Romantic Era, so Kiel's musical style and pedagogical techniques had an impact on Polish music at least as far as Noskowski was concerned. Paderewski, on the other hand, "... learned from [Urban] a lot--much more than from Kiel" [1]. Paderewski found the lessons from his German teachers boring [2], and he disliked their snuffing out his more modernist ideas. Noskowski, who taught almost all of the greatest Polish composers of a whole generation, absorbed Kiel's instructions, assimilating more of his style [3]. For better or for worse, one can trace back many developments in Polish music to Kiel.
The Piano Concerto
While this piano concerto may not have ascended to the grandeur and sublimity of Brahms' first, there is still so much of the other greats of the romantic era here. This is a concerto that mimics the outward posture of Mendelssohn, the virtuosity and style of Schumann, and the calming soundscapes of Beethoven.
Besides the fact that the middle section is named a nocturne, there is nothing new here structurally. The emphasis in the first and last movements is on the virtuosity in the piano, which is balanced out by slower, more lyrical sections that feature the orchestra more. The nocturne that is sandwiched in by the other two movements is brief, but it offers a nice respite after the marathon of delicate fingerwork in the piano.
[1] I. J. Paderewski. Correspondence to Helena Górska. Berlin. 1884.
[2] W. Marchwica. The National Style of Music by Ignacy Jan Paderewski - Late Romanticism or Eclecticism, Musica Iagellonica. 2002.
[3] S. Keym. Symphonie-Kulturtransfer. Untersuchungen zum Studienaufenthalt polnischer Komponisten in Deutschland und zu ihrer Auseinandersetzung mit der symphonischen Tradition 1867-1918. Hildesheim: Olms Verlag - Weidmannsche Verlagsbuchhandlung 2010.