{"id":165,"date":"2009-11-04T22:32:08","date_gmt":"2009-11-04T20:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.annapetrova.com\/en\/?p=165"},"modified":"2009-11-07T14:55:08","modified_gmt":"2009-11-07T12:55:08","slug":"friedrich-kalkbrenner-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.annapetrova.com\/en\/2009\/11\/04\/friedrich-kalkbrenner-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Friedrich Kalkbrenner (1785-1849) – Part 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

2. The other recording is with Kalkbrenner\u2019s 2 concertos<\/a> \u2013 Nr. 1 and Nr. 4, made in 2006 and played by the renowned pianist Howard Shelley to whom we owe so many wonderful musical discoveries.<\/p>\n

I think in most cases, when a musician records some (especially unknown) music, it is because he (or she) likes, if not loves it. According to this preference will be the accompanying text \u2013 leading us into the composer\u2019s world, perhaps telling some intriguing facts and, of course, explaining why this music is worth playing, and even more so \u2013 listening to. <\/p>\n

With some excitement and expectation I opened the concertos CD\u2019s booklet commented by Jeremy Nicholas<\/a>. It began thus: <\/p>\n

\u201cKalkbrenner was a German pianist and composer of colossal vanity\u201d. \u2013 Unusual introduction, I thought. But if his music is lovely enough \u2013 who cares?
\nThe next sentence made me smile: \u201cafter my death or when I stop playing\u201d informed the composer the young Chopin, \u201cthere will be no (more \u2013A.P.) representative of the great pianoforte school.\u201d Oh, yes, that is a normal life process \u2013 nearly every generation of creators (and other mortals) feels like being the last one in some way. How many older, well known singers were convinced (and have said so) that the art of singing will die with them? But was the vain Kalkbrenner that laconic? My curiosity forced me to search for more. As it came, there was another part of the statement, found in Chopin\u2019s letters and ending with: \u201c\u2026and you cannot create a new school without knowing the old one\u201d – said Kalkbrenner further……..Myself I think that Kalkbrenner was right \u2013 he was one of the last of a great pianoforte school, the older one. Wilhelm von Lenz in his book \u201cThe great piano virtuosos of our time\u201d written in 1872 recounts:\u201d I was personally acquaitaned with all the great pianists of the first half of the century: John Field, Moscheles, Hummel, Kalkbrenner. Now we call this the \u201cold\u201d school (with exception of Field, who developed in his own peculiar way) \u2013 a school of piano-playing which if not founded by Hummel, was at least essentially influenced by him, and led to the new era of the pianoforte, to Liszt and Chopin\u201d. The constant improvement of the pianoforte demanded a different way of playing it. If Kalkbrenner (and other pianists of his generation) still played much from the wrist and fingers, now the piano keyboards becoming heavier and heavier were to be played with much more weight, from the whole arm. The improved instruments offered more but required a new method, a new approach.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2. The other recording is with Kalkbrenner\u2019s 2 concertos \u2013 Nr. 1 and Nr. 4, made in 2006 and played by the renowned pianist Howard Shelley to whom we owe so many wonderful musical discoveries. I think in most cases, when a musician records some (especially unknown) music, it is because he (or she) likes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annapetrova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annapetrova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annapetrova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annapetrova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annapetrova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.annapetrova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249,"href":"https:\/\/www.annapetrova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165\/revisions\/249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.annapetrova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annapetrova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.annapetrova.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}