I very much like this piece. It's really what I need. Been listening to tons of classical and I realize as a composer I'll never be like that.
Palmer has a lot of fun in this piece, it's high quality stuff, but probably too fun for classical purists.
Great stuff. Really dug hearing this and found it as interesting as what ended up as his side on Works.
And I dig his side of Works!
In terms of the amount of material recorded, Palmer had the obvious ready-to-go solo album, when you consider all the things that ended up on the Works albums and this concerto. I think they should have done solo albums instead of spreading it out piecemeal across various sides of vinyl or shelving it altogether in the case of this track.
I guess this was shelved because it would have meant having two concertos on one double album...further ammunition for those who considered them 'pretentious'!
This is better than Emerson's concerto. That should have been shelved instead of this one.
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Laura
They are both good but I have to admit how surprised I am to see just how good Palmer's is.Originally Posted by lak611
This piece should have interpretive dancing to it!
I bought this CD when it came out remember kind of feeling it was a shame it wasn't used for Works.
But, I mean ... replacing Emerson's concerto is crazy talk. It goes beyond whether or not I even rate it that highly from the standpoint of personal taste. It's deserving of Side 1.
I can understand why Palmer's 'Concerto' was cut. I just don't see where it could have gone other from Palmer's side. And, iirc, it was felt that two long concertos on the album might have been overkill, whereas Palmer's side as it exists provided some more variety.
Concerto is great, written closer to the style of Stravinsky. I bought the CP Anthology when it came out, and was surprised that such a great piece of music was shelved. They'd better put it on Palmer's Works side.
After Tales From Topographic Oceans, a double LP with 4 epics, only two Concertos on a double LP wouldn't look any kind of over. Things like LA Night, New Orleans, Food for Your Soul, - I can easily go without that pop- variety for much more deep variety of the Concerto.
Emerson's concerto was just unambitious and sounded like he didn't put much effort into it. I expected something better from him. Emerson was much better as an interpreter of classical pieces than as a writer of his own classical pieces.
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Laura
Pirates, and the first part of Piano Concerto, remind me of Milhauld and Bernstain, to a degree. BTW, I was surprised to know, that Bernstain once called Pirates 'primitive'. No questions, if response like that would've come from Ligeti, or Kurtag....but Bernstain? How did he then characterized stuff like West-side Story?
I've never read a review of Palmer's Concerto, would like to know about the formal side of this piece.
I see it quite differently. I find it "ambitious" and a very well constructed concerto. Maybe you'd have preferred its influence have been drawn from more experimental composers, but I don't equate this with ambition; just taste.
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When I finally broke down and got Works 1 (yeah, I was in serious completist mode by this point, which explains why I have Works 2 and Love Beach—a.k.a. the Contractual Obligation Series—in my collection), I was anticipating the group side to be the only side I liked. What I got instead? Carl’s side was the only one I liked. My reactions to each side, in a nutshell:
- Emerson’s concerto: second-rate classical music.
- Lake’s side: yuck!
- Palmer’s side: varied and interesting
- group side: perfunctory, overblown and overall disappointing
Pretty sure that Atlantic pulled the plug on those solo albums after they saw how the Yes members’ solo LPs tanked. Considering some of the dreck found on Works 2, I think Atlantic were doing the world a favor by preventing Emerson’s and Lake’s solo albums to see the light of day. Yes, the lack of Palmer’s solo album turning up was a sad casualty of this, especially as...
...this is really something that would have appealed to me!
What, not an Underwood?
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
"Primitive" used in art criticism isn't always meant as a put-down. It's a style in the arts that's very highly praised and collected like in Art Brut or Folk Painting. It's hard to say how he meant it.
Highly enjoyable number; I still maintain that Works is the band's true masterpiece ---- only truly experimental musicians Who are following their muse and unfettered by artificial boundaries could have created such an album
You brand whore.
What, not an Underwood?
It was probably a put-down.
Although I do think it possible that "Pirates" could be described in this manner without it being one.
^ It was certainly a put down)
The context is, that Emerson wanted Bernstain to conduct the orchestra on Pirates, - Berstain refused.
I like this. I don't pull out the CD nearly often enough. I seem to be always reaching for one of his live albums first.
Like Lenny's "Grandma Moses" regarding Emo's concerto?
What does it mean, can you tell?
Grandma Moses was considered to be a simple painter, not someone with high quality art. Bernstein felt that Keith's concerto was something so simple that a grammar school kid could have composed it.
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Laura
^Thanks for enlightning, Laura! This remark sounds arrogant, considering that Bernstain's own music is far from being very sophisticated. His most famous works - Divertmento for Orchestra and West Side Story, are both padded with dance hall stuff more than enough. Btw, Bernstain's close friend, Aaron Copland once has made his own rating of composers, whose music is most accessible - and he put himself on the top of the list) Bernstain loved to conduct Copland's music, he understood it very well. Copland adored folk stuff, some of his pieces, like Rodeo or Salon De Mexico are entirely based on country dances.
Loves Keith's Piano Concerto which gets a lot of respect from modern classical composers and pianists. I believe Keith said it's the work he was most proud of and rightly so!
Bernstein's Piano concerto's never gained any widespread critical acclaim so wouldn't read too much into his oppinions. If fact he'll be best remembered as a Conductor rather than a Composer, something which he feared he would be....I suspect that Bernstein was aware of the extent to which so many people had an emotional stake in his career, and that he found it intimidating. It was a cliche, even a joke, that he could never decide what to do with himself: compose, conduct, play the piano, write Broadway shows, do TV. But what Bernstein really wanted was to be a great composer. "I never had a career," he said in 1984. "Conducting is really just a thing." It was a theme to which he returned days before his death in 1990: "The obvious fear is that I'll be remembered--however vaguely--not as a composer but as a conductor." Despite the fact that he was a popular success as a composer, Bernstein himself is reported to have been disillusioned that some of his more serious works were not rated more highly by critics, and that he himself had not been able to devote more time to composing because of his conducting and other activities.[50] Professional criticism of Bernstein's music often involves discussing the degree to which he created something new as art versus simply skillfully borrowing and fusing together elements from others. In the late 1960s, Bernstein himself reflected that his eclecticism was in part due to his lack of lengthy periods devoted to composition, and that he was still seeking to enrich his own personal musical language in the manner of the great composers of the past, all of whom had borrowed elements from others.[66] Perhaps the harshest criticism he received from some critics in his lifetime though was directed at works like his Kaddish Symphony, his MASS and the opera A Quiet Place, where they found the underlying message of the piece or the text as either mildly embarrassing, clichéd or offensive. Despite this, all these pieces have been performed, discussed and reconsidered since his death.
On Emerson
From Jeffrey Biegel:I am very saddened, as we were close friends, he was , in my eyes, like an older brotcommentary I read from his fans is how Keith and his work with various groups, The Nice, ELP, etc, turned them on toher. Most of the classical music. My friendship with Keith began in his later years, starting around 2000. The last chapters of Keith’s life were quite special. Many of his fans may not be aware of the following testament: I came to know Keith around 2000, thanks to Daniel Dorff at Theodore Presser (music publishers). I learned much of his Piano Concerto #1 ‘by ear’, and was sent the score. I immediately learned it, and scheduled a performance with the NJ Bergen Philharmonic in 2002. I sent a fax message to Keith, and he warmly replied. We then started an email exchange, which finally led to phone conversations. We first met in February 2008 when I performed with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, and Keith attended along with Mari and brought his beloved bird, cage and all, to the Sheraton Hotel! In April 2008, he attended my performance of his Piano Concerto #1 (written in 1977) with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, Steven Larsen conducting. We became close friends, and met again in Oregon when I performed his concerto with the Rogue Valley Symphony, conducted by Martin Majkut. It was there that David Woodford and Jason Woodford filmed us for a documentary of Keith’s life. Maestro Jeff Reed then invited us to the Orchestra Kentucky of Bowling Green for a joint performance where I performed Keith’s concerto, Keith performed works with the orchestra, conducted one of his orchestral pieces, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award in the Arts and Humanities. This was around 2013. In 2014, we celebrated his 70th birthday in a concert with the South Shore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Scott Jackson Wiley, with hundreds of fans waiting until after 1am to meet their idol. I was determined to help make Keith’s name iconic to the next generation. The icing on the cake came in 2015. Keith gave his blessing to me to record his Piano Concerto #1–making it the second recording of the concerto only after his own in 1977 with the London Philharmonic. Joined with the Brown University Orchestra and their Maestro Paul Schuyler Phillips, Naxos and Naxos of America released the recording bearing the title of Neil Sedaka’s ‘Manhattan Intermezzo’ along with Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Duke Ellington’s ‘New World A-Comin’. The cd was released January 8, 2016, and Keith gave interviews with Joe McKesson’s Dash Classical, Sirius XM (yet to be aired) and others. Everything seemed to be on the upswing. Keith also performed in concert for a festival in Palermo in September 2015 with Scott Jackson Wiley conducting, and Primavera Shima performed his piano concerto. He had also performed at MoogFest and made an appearance at The NAMM Show, and performed in Europe and was scheduled to travel to Japan next month. I was just on the verge of sharing with him that it seemed likely that he might have been the recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Music from a prestigious college in the US sometime in 2017. Unfortunately, only Keith had control of his destiny ultimately. It is my hope that all of his fans and friends will remember him by continuing to promote his music and perform his music when it is possible. I will continue to perform his piano concerto when the opportunities present themselves, and hope the next generation of young pianists will take interest to perform it as well. I will miss him, and it is only now becoming reality after yesterday’s shocking news. - See more at: http://slippedisc.com/2016/03/classi....CWMO9RRD.dpuf
Last edited by Rufus; 01-17-2017 at 03:50 PM.
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