Guest
Charles Mayer (1799-1862) was a Prussian composer. IMSLP lists his nationality as Russian, German, and French. He was born in Königsberg (modern-day Kaliningrad), which is today an exclave of Russia, but at the time part of the Prussian Empire which later mostly became modern-day Germany, so that explains those two claims, not sure on the French part, other than he lived there briefly. He studied under John Field, and one of his pieces was misattributed to Frederick Chopin for over a century. This is his only piano concerto that I know of. (Note: The actual title of the piece is “Concerto Symphonique pour Piano et Orchestre“. But if I don't call it “Piano Concerto“ in the title it seems to not show up in anyone's search results. At least that's my theory, let's see if it pans out.) Wikipedia: (composer) IMSLP: :Mayer,_Charles Movements: 0:00 - I. Allegro ma non troppo - attacca: 9:26 - II. Andante quasi allegretto 17:55 - III. Finale. Allegro (vivo) Much like the Raif concerto ( I posted a few weeks ago, this one also features a number of prominent solo parts for the cello, particularly in the 2nd and 3rd movements. Were it featured more in the 1st, it'd be almost enough to qualify as a double concerto. This transcription is mostly complete with one exception - the timpani part was completely missing from the manuscript. It is referenced in the cues on several of the other parts in two places - notably it's the first thing you hear, and it also has a roll into the “B“ section later in the 1st movement. I've taken the liberty of inserting it into a bunch of other places that felt appropriate (in the 1st and 3rd movements - the 2nd has too many harmony changes for the 2 notes on the timpani to keep up), but this is guesswork at best. I spent a little more time than usual on this one, which is why my last several releases were older, simpler works, to give this one the attention and polish it needed. I hope it shows, this one was a fun piece, and I'd like to do more like it, but these Romantic period pieces take a lot more work to sound good than the older early-Classical and Baroque pieces. (There's also a lot more of the latter to choose from - more recent pieces are more likely to have existing recordings.) I may alternate between them just to give these later works the attention they deserve, but also be able to release something on a weekly basis. Disclaimer: Yes, it's synthesized. Obviously real musicians with real instruments would be vastly superior, but this simulated performance is better than nothing at all, which is what existed previously. My greatest wish is that these videos will inspire someone with the means to arrange a real performance and hopefully record and publish it so we can hear them in their full glory. If that someone is you, or you know of an existing recording of this, please let me know and I may add a link to this description.
