# Best 20th C Piano Concerti that have an oblique fury to them



## ObliqueFury

wondering what you people think are the best concerti in the Lyatoshynsky vein of intensity and obscurity (oblique fury)


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## PetrB

Are you unaware of Prokofiev ~ Piano Concerto No. 2 ???


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## ObliqueFury

Yes I am in fact


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## PetrB

ObliqueFury said:


> Yes I am in fact


LOL, well, please _Check it out!_ it is quite fantastic, the first movement especially.
*Prokofiev ~ Piano Concerto No. 2*




My still preferred recording of this is only available through a transferred from tape recording service, the original LP long out of print:
Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2: Malcolm Frager Piano / René Leibowitz / Paris Conservatoire Orchestra
It can be obtained via this company:
http://www.highdeftapetransfers.com/product.php?pid=6735
*Prokofiev ~ Piano concerto No. 3* is the most popular of his five piano concerti, and may have some of what you seek, while my guess it will not impress you so much as per "fury." Fine piece, and very exciting, nonetheless. My recommended recording of the 3rd is Gary Graffman, George Szell, Cleveland Orchestra (Sony Classical, I think.)

In another vein, i.e. without a trace of the romantic musical procedures or (same type of) grander gestures in them, I would also recommend the first two, at least, of *Bartok*'s *Piano Concerti*.

In the later contemporary 'neo-romantic' arena, 
*Einojuhani Rautavaara ~ Piano Concerto No. 1.*





ADD: zOMG, I would be most remiss to not direct you to that "Other Ravel Piano Concerto" 
*Ravel ~ Piano Concerto in D.*





And *Samuel Barber*'s (modern, 'late romantic tinged') only *Piano Concerto* might just float your boat (gorgeous long floated melodic line middle movement, as well) The Youtube link with John Browning, pianist, and the Cleveland Symphony, cond. George Szell, is 'not available in my country,' lol. This is the premiere recording, and having heard others, the only one I would recommend. Any way you slice it, this is one helluva piano concerto

Happy listening, and

Best regards.


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## MagneticGhost

I'm not one hundred percent sure what you are after.
But I would recommend Salonen's Piano Concerto if you are after a modern virtuosic piano concerto. Starts about 25 minutes in.

It is 21st Century not 20th though.


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## joen_cph

A few more, intense at least:

Corigliano 



Hammerth 



, also 



Nørgård 



Keuris 



Mosolov no.1 



Ustvolskaya 



Ruders


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## EdwardBast

PetrB said:


> LOL, well, please _Check it out!_ it is quite fantastic, the first movement especially.
> *Prokofiev ~ Piano Concerto No. 2*
> 
> 
> 
> 
> My still preferred recording of this is only available through a transferred from tape recording service, the original LP long out of print:
> Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2: Malcolm Frager Piano / René Leibowitz / Paris Conservatoire Orchestra


Holy $hi#! That (Yuja Wang's) was the best performance of the first movement cadenza I have ever heard. Utter clarity of line, the melody never obscured or bogged down amid the flourishes. And the overall conception was great. Looked like a couple of the violinists were getting scared toward the end. ;-)


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## PetrB

EdwardBast said:


> Holy $hi#! That (Yuja Wang's) was the best performance of the first movement cadenza I have ever heard. Utter clarity of line, the melody never obscured or bogged down amid the flourishes. And the overall conception was great. Looked like a couple of the violinists were getting scared toward the end. ;-)


I love that cadenza (M. Frager, in that 'obscure' performance I recommended -- well, there's a reason I would recommend an obscure and hard to find recording!)

When a youth, I checked the score to this concerto out of the public library. Reading through, when it came to that point in the cadenza with that up and down 'arpeggio' flourish of what pretty much amounts to tone clusters, someone had written in, "Tsk, Tsk, Ivan!"


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## Rhombic

I have been quite surprised by seeing Lyatoshynsky as an example, bearing in mind that he has been unjustly neglected despite his great contributions to symphonic works and other areas of composition. Anyway, i have no example in mind now because I was going to post *Lyatoshynsky's Slavic Concerto*, but, since you mentioned him, I assume that you already know it. Wow. I really did not expect you to use him as an example and I am glad that people still listen to him and know his compositions. He does deserve more attention (and I know that this is almost a cliché now: "nobody knows him, he is good, he is unjustly neglected", but his transcendence in Soviet and post-Soviet composition is unarguably enormous).


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## elgar's ghost

There's the concerto by Mikhail Nosyrev that you may find interesting - the only recording was on Olympia so prices are steep, but at least it's on youtube:


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## Stavrogin

EdwardBast said:


> Holy $hi#! That (Yuja Wang's) was the best performance of the first movement cadenza I have ever heard. Utter clarity of line, the melody never obscured or bogged down amid the flourishes. And the overall conception was great. Looked like a couple of the violinists were getting scared toward the end. ;-)


Check out Vinnitskaya's performance, it quickly became my favourite one


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## hpowders

Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 with Abdel Rahman El Bacha, piano. (He also recorded a terrific J.S. Bach WTC Book One).


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## Guest

These are not the "best"--but they are unmentioned so far.

Try Cristobal Halffter's:






Or Iannis Xenakis - Synaphaï


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## Guest

One not mentioned that I really like is Berio's "Points On The Curve To Find..." - at least I think that's the one I'm thinking of - he has a few of them.


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## PetrB

arcaneholocaust said:


> One not mentioned that I really like is Berio's "Points On The Curve To Find..." - at least I think that's the one I'm thinking of - he has a few of them.


I think your memory is probably correct, a piece I like a lot, though it is very far away from that tonal declamatory late romantic Russian piece cited in the OP. 
Luciao Berio ~ Poits on the curve to find (1974)





But given only that cited piece and the more generally sought and terrifically non-qualified vagueness of "oblique fury" -- I'm a thinkin' anything recommended which may seem to have that 'same' quality is from the individual recommending it. To me, the piece cited in the OP has about as much musical interest or oblique fury to it as an upperclassman street-crossing guard minding the first graders. But each to his own. (My adolescent loud and angry music choice was the Prokofeiv 2nd piano concerto, still today not quite for everybody.)


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## dgee

Maurice Ohana's concerto packs a fair bit of punch


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## norman bates

considering french composers there's also the one composed by Jolivet


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## Peter Gibaloff

Tchaikovsky b minor - Ivo Pogorelić, Claudio Abado

There are too few Artists today, who can move your mind in a moment.


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## starthrower

Ligeti concerto is fantastic!


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