Ernst Krenek - Complete Piano Concertos, Vol. 1 (Mikhail Korzhev)

Information

Composer: Ernst Krenek

• Piano Concerto No. 1 in F sharp major, Op. 18
• Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 81
• Piano Concerto No. 3, Op. 107

Mikhail Korzhev, piano

English Symphony Orchestra

Kenneth Woods, conductor

Date: 2016

Label: Toccata

https://toccataclassics.com/product/ernst-krenek-piano-concertos/

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Review

Composers born in 1900, such as Aaron Copland, Kurt Weill and Ernst Krenek, were in the front line of those who, in the 1920s, needed to respond to the diverse challenges of the great modernist pioneers – Schoenberg and Stravinsky in particular. The Class of 1900 followed Schoenberg and Stravinsky in seeking to retain a radical core without taking the avant-garde route to ephemerality and inaccessibility – and none more so than Krenek, whose journey from Imperial Vienna to California (where he died in 1991) paralleled his musical evolution from the questing progressiveness of his youth to something more pragmatic, even postmodern, in the years after 1945.

Within a catalogue of close to 250 works, Krenek’s first three piano concertos – Nos 1 and 2 recorded here for the first time – fit this profile neatly enough. No 1 (1923) is brashly youthful in some ways – even a bit slapdash – but also has substance, with plenty of boldly projected, rather Hindemith-like harmony and counterpoint. Clear-cut rhythms and melodic shapes signify Krenek’s determination to avoid excessive complexity; and when he adopts the 12 note technique, as in the Second Concerto (1937), his affinity for Schoenberg-like allusions to Baroque textures and Classical forms keeps the music’s feet on firmly communicative ground. Energetically characterful, the more economical Third Concerto (1946) has comparable virtues: the lively interplay of solo and orchestra is the result of designing the work to be directed by a piano-playing conductor.

These well-sprung performances benefit from the sharply focused acoustic of the Wyastone Concert Hall. Conductor Kenneth Woods might occasionally have lightened textures and adopted brisker tempi – for example, in the Second Concerto’s second movement. But with a forthright and eloquent soloist in Mikhail Korzhev, there’s no mistaking the edgy fervour of Krenek at his best. Well-judged booklet essays add to this disc’s appeal.

-- Arnold Whittall, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2016/Mar/Krenek_PCs_v1_TOCC0323.htm

https://www.classicalsource.com/cd/ernst-krenek-complete-piano-concertos-volume-1-mikhail-korzhev-english-symphony-orchestra-kenneth-woods-toccata-classics/

https://www.amazon.com/Krenek-Complete-Piano-Concertos-Vol/dp/B01B2W7TDA

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Ernst Krenek (August 23, 1900 – December 22, 1991) was an Austrian, later American, composer of Czech origin. Born in Vienna, Krenek studied there and in Berlin with Franz Schreker before working in a number of German opera houses as conductor. In 1938 Krenek moved to the United States, where he taught music at various universities. He died in Palm Springs, California. Krenek's music encompassed a variety of styles and reflects many of the principal musical influences of the 20th century. His early work is in a late-Romantic idiom, turned to atonality around 1920, and became more relaxed in his later years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Krenek

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Mikhail Korzhev is equally active as a solo recitalist, a chamber musician, a soloist with orchestras, and as a recording artist. He holds a doctorate in piano performance from University of Southern California, where he studied with Daniel Pollack. His previous teachers include Alexander Satz and Vera Khoroshina at Moscow Conservatory College. He taught at University of Southern California, and is on the faculty of California State University at Fullerton and Chapman University. Korzhev’s discography includes CD recordings featuring compositions by Ernst Krenek and Gerard Schurmann.

https://www.mikhailkorzhevpiano.com/

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