Karamanov: Symphony No. 3 / Piano Concerto No. 3

The piano playing was marvellous. If i have the chance, i would like to hear it live. This music is about delirium of the sick child but unfortunately, the quality of this CD sound is really far cry from excellent...

Nevertheless, this is one of the best recordings that i have heard by Viardo. The music had carefully thought of, performed very sensitively & harmonies were precise. The orchestra & soloist were hand in hand together. I am sure if Karamanov was alive today, he would be very pleased with what Viardo & Almeida have done to his piano concerto & his symphony.

Karamanov lives in a shack in Northern Russia. His composing is innovative - often groundbreaking and unconventional. Movements start as the paino is tranformed into random raindrops, finising as a rainstorm and the sound of thousand church bells all ringing at the same time. Viardo is the 1973 Van Cliburn gold winner. Buy this - it is a must for fans of 20th century composers. Also, see Viardo's other CD's -- spectacular!

Although this recording involves a symphony recording as well as as Karamanov's 3rd. Piano Concerto. I just wanted to comment briefly on the Concerto, as I am not fully familiar with the Symphony as yet, other than the fact that the Symphony has a more pronounced modernist focus. I have listened and have absorbed the Piano Concerto,however, for some time now; and, I wanted to state in the very modest of terms, my personal opinion. As I am not a professional musician I can't comment on any precise analysis concerning structural, modal, or rythmic precisions that haunt the work. As a dedicated listener I neverteless can state that there are sections within the Concerto that for me are truly masterful persuasions of slowly building passions, of harmonic subtlties,sustained climaxes, melodic flow that permeates orchestral crescendos and diminuendos toward mysterious silence. There are indeed hints of Rachmaninoff. I also sense suggestive minimalist tenedencies within the work. the Concerto grabs hold of my attention, and I am enamored of a musical "language" that is of 20th century persuasions; we're out of the 19th century, and the composer also avoids here any affiliation with any avant guard play which becomes acute in his later symphonies. There is romance, fear, ecstacy, and eventual silence in the Concert. I heartily recommend it.