Pederewski
Pederewski: Why Haven't I Heard Him Fully Before?
Since I haven't done one of these "Omgz, you must listen to this composer/piece/whatever" posts in a long time, I'm sure this is quite overdue.
Click to viewAnywho - this is Pederewski. Sound familiar? It should. He was a politician, third Prime Minister of Poland, United Nations ambassador to Poland and whole bunch of other political good stuff.
Not to mention the best bits - he was a pianist and a composer of quite litereally - the most captivating piano concerto I've heard since I heard the immaculate Rach 2 a million years ago. (I've always liked it better than the 3rd, it just seems so much more..full of sound.)
So, I 'discovered' Pederewski (much to my shame) while driving home from work, quite zonked out on cold/flu meds (from the night before - this is why I hate NyQuil - that stuff stays in my system for a full 12-15 hours!) and everything on the radio sucked (they keep playing that stupid Vegas song; I really should invest in an ipod...) so I punched '6' for my faithful 'classical' music station and to my complete astonishment they weren't playing the routine 'Water Music' or 'Brandenburg Concertos' or (gag) Vivaldi's Seasons (I've just heard it so much when I was studying piano, that I'm completely sick of listening to any 'seasonal' music by that composer).
This was something..a bit fresh, though I knew it was Romantic, though still contemporary enough to sound kind of cinematic and I was just literally amazed by the pianist (even better than Wild here) and the recording which was just crackling with good sound.
"What is this piece? Who is this composer?' I asked myself - and for the next twenty minutes left in the drive I listened happily and played my little guessing game to myself ' Name that Composer's Country of Origin" - I kept thinking it sounded undoutably Russian (since you know I love my bombastic, techinically wowing Russian playing/music) but the second mvmnt held me back since it seemed a bit stately and not as 'swooshy' and 'woosh' as a typical Russian. Now, I'm by no means a 'classical' music officionado, but I've been listening to a lot of this stuff and I think I'm finally gaining some kind of an ear...or at least I like to tell myself!
I kept guessing the country but failing (I was thinking perhaps Russia, but a transplanted Russian, since this concerto was too modern to be from the era I was thinking) and I was right - Pederewski is Polish, but transplanted to America, was friends with Elgar of all people (which explains the regality of some of the music, I'm thinking - good old English influence). Doesn't matter because after listening to that stimulating cadenza, I'm thinking "Why isn't this played publicly more??" Seriously, why?? [Skip to min. 6:40 - after the run (around 6:44) the 'fun' part starts - this bit sounds like a lot of fun to play if your fingers weren't sweaty and aching)
The announcer replied and called it a 'gem of music', obviously alluding to it's brilliance. Aargh, how frustrating. It makes me wonder just how much other good music I'm not hearing since it's just not getting good rotation on the air and in the concert halls.