Outside of Alban Berg, Anton Webern, and Hanns Eisler, Arnold Schoenberg's most gifted European pupil was probably Greek composer Nikolaos Skalkottas. The Swedish label BIS has devoted at least 13 discs to his neglected output, and the main work featured here is the first recording of a monument of early serial composition, Skalkottas' Piano Concerto No. 3 (1939), a work so difficult that at its 1969 premiere three different pianists were employed to play its individual movements. BIS manages to get along in utilizing one ...
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Outside of Alban Berg, Anton Webern, and Hanns Eisler, Arnold Schoenberg's most gifted European pupil was probably Greek composer Nikolaos Skalkottas. The Swedish label BIS has devoted at least 13 discs to his neglected output, and the main work featured here is the first recording of a monument of early serial composition, Skalkottas' Piano Concerto No. 3 (1939), a work so difficult that at its 1969 premiere three different pianists were employed to play its individual movements. BIS manages to get along in utilizing one very fine pianist, Geoffrey Douglas Madge. Scored for piano and 10 wind instruments, Concerto No. 3 is like a cross between Schoenberg's yet unwritten Piano Concerto, Op. 42, and Colin McPhee's 1928 Concerto for Piano and Wind Octet. However, at a length of 66 minutes Skalkottas' concerto is longer than both those works put together and played twice; it is one of the longest piano concertos ever written. Although a twelve-tone work, the piece abounds with wit, sarcasm, allusions to...
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