Warsaw Concerto - score and video

[andrevazpereira]

Hello everyone,

Let me share with you this beautiful concerto from the 40`s "Warsaw Concerto" for Piano and Orchestra.

A free score in a 2 piano version can be found in this link:

http://www.4shared.com/file/58094786/8c ... _Pff_.html

There is also a piano solo version (free)

http://www.4shared.com/file/48512754/5e ... certo.html

For those who don`t know this concerto here are a fiew video links:

http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=_bOD0Qt1FXM

http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=tGulOFJqiZc

http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=4K4YCA97aY4

Please share information about this Concerto!!

[Corlyss_D]

Is this spam?

The suspicion that it is may account for the lack of responses.

[andrevazpereira]

Not at all, I would like to share this with the comunity... And mainly get some feedback about this piece...

If i did something wrong with the poast please let me know...

[Corlyss_D]

Not at all, I would like to share this with the comunity... And mainly get some feedback about this piece...

If i did something wrong with the poast please let me know...

Let not your heart be troubled. If you didn't intend it to be spam, then it isn't spam. The presentation of the post was very spam-like. You know, "Hey look at this wonderful thing I found on such-and such a website. Check it out!" That's how a lot of spam is constructed.

I'll say something about the content after I check it out. I've always liked the Warsaw Concerto meself. A nice example of music composed for a movie that has some staying power in the concert hall.

[andrevazpereira]

The video links refer to the variouse versions (solo, orquestra and windband), and the scores too. But i would like feedback about Richard Addinsel`s Warsaw Concerto, if anyone knows it...

I talk for my self, i only got to know it when i had to record it. Even so, all the senior members of my family recalled this famouse melody (and they are not musicians).

[anasazi]

The video links refer to the variouse versions (solo, orquestra and windband), and the scores too. But i would like feedback about Richard Addinsel`s Warsaw Concerto, if anyone knows it...

I talk for my self, i only got to know it when i had to record it. Even so, all the senior members of my family recalled this famouse melody (and they are not musicians).

OK, here's my spiel. Around 1964 I was a senior in high school in a small farming town in Indiana. I had been taking piano lessons since I was about 6. Somehow, I got involved in the schools' jazz band (back then, they called it stage band - whatever that meant) but the teacher discovered that I could play this piece (Warsoaw Concerto). So somehow I managed to end up playing this piece in front of the school auditorium. These were great kids. They would have applauded if I had just played some scales or arppegios. But I was terrified. Moreso, since I in my assinine stupidity, had the piano turned sideways, like it was a concert hall. I started well enough, but as soon as I had to play an extended arppegio and caught sight ot the assembly hall full of kids that would soon hate me, I froze. Geez, a "J" minor scale.

Funny thing was that nobody really noticed. All my friends still thought I was cool. But I never let myself get talked into anythingl like that again.

BTW, for those who don't know, Warsaw Concerto was made up of the themes from a 1940's movie called "Dangerous Moonlight", composed by Richard Addinsell. The themes were so attractive that the music publisher, Chapell, had a short concerto made up. It is really kind of a fun piece, but obviously quite full of Rachmaninoff.

[Auntie Lynn]

I didn't know anybody took this piece seriously any more...???

[Febnyc]

Why not? It's a schmaltzy, great piece to hear.


And, yes, it sure is "full of Rachmaninoff." This is because the producers of the film wanted it that way, but were unable to convince Rachmaninoff himself to score it. So, they turned to Addinsell with specific instructions to write such a work.

[andrevazpereira]

Well when i heard the piece it seemed that the theme repeated too many times for a 9:30 minute concerto. The problem is that it repeats diferently every time (Key, arpegios, acompainment). When i looked at the score (the original one) i thought it was unplayabel!! There are many versions of this piece, and easier so people can play it and enjoy it, but the ORIGINAL... as some very demanding places. Imagine 7th arpegios in a distence of a 6th, at a speed that is beyond fast... Took me some months util i got it almoast done. In every version i`ve eard, you don`t get to ear "cristal clear" what is writen in the original version. Any way, i got to record it in January and the CD is for sale now... But it took a lot of work to do this concerto in the Original version... (with every note in it, the moast "cristal clear" as possible, and you know how editors are demanding...).

[Lance]

{snipped}Any way, i got to record it in January and the CD is for sale now... But it took a lot of work to do this concerto in the Original version... (with every note in it, the moast "cristal clear" as possible, and you know how editors are demanding...).

Can you point to us where we might be able to acquire a copy of the CD, Andre?

[Corlyss_D]

Why not? It's a schmaltzy, great piece to hear.


And, yes, it sure is "full of Rachmaninoff." This is because the producers of the film wanted it that way, but were unable to convince Rachmaninoff himself to score it. So, they turned to Addinsell with specific instructions to write such a work.

Great story, Frank. Thanks.

[Febnyc]

Thanks, Corlyss.

There's another warhorse of a piece, quite similar to Warsaw Concerto - and it's called Midnight on the Cliffs, composed by Leonard Pennario. He wrote this when he was seventeen and visiting Newport, Rhode Island. According to the CD notes, Pennario was "fascinated by the crashing of the waves on the cliffs in the darkness." This became a "party piece," sort of a musical equal of "It was a dark and stormy night..." Anyway, the notes go on to inform us that Doris Day asked for it to be used in her 1956 film Julie. This boosted the popularity of Midnight, and also subjected it to the scorn of the purists.

It's a flamboyant, arpeggio-filled, doom-laden score of schmaltz which definitely echoes Warsaw and even Rozsa's Spellbound Concerto.

The recording I own is on a disc called "Leonard Pennario - Film Themes and Variations" - issued in 1992 by Cambria. It is long out of print and long a special favorite of mine. I love this stuff.

[NB: Apparently, Naxos has recorded Midnight, on a CD titled, appropriately, "Warsaw Concerto" (8.554323).]

[andrevazpereira]

The Cd is for sale in this link, It`s called "Over the hill":

http://www.afinaudio.net/index.php?act= ... ductId=617

It`s a Portuguese label (but it as an english version on the site). We might get this recording to be released by Moolenhar (a Deutsh Label specialised in windband).

Any way, if you want to check the quality of the sound before you buy it, i have a 1:30 minute demo in my myspace webpage:

www.myspace.com/andrevazpereira

And a video on youtube of a recent concert (not the Cd version)

http://br.youtube.com/watch?v=_bOD0Qt1FXM

Thanks for all the replies, and the information shared. I also eared that Addinsell was a militar himself. Is this correct?

For those who don`t take this piece "seriously", i encourage the to try to study and play it. You will surely gain a lot of recpect for it...