Émile Prudent; Piano Concerto No.1 in G min, Op.34 (1850)

Émile Prudent (1817-1863) was a French composer. This is the first of two concertos, properly titled "Concerto-Symphonie". The second one only has the piano part on IMSLP, so I probably won't be doing that one unless I can find the full parts somewhere.

Movements:
0:00 - I. Allegro tranquillo
12:03 - II. Andante (Religioso)
20:08 - III. Rondo. Allegro assai - Allegretto con eleganza

IMSLP lists this as having 4 movements, and I can see how a cursory glance at the score would lead you to that conclusion. However, I would say that the "Allegro assai" part is simply an introduction to the Allegretto (it's only about a minute long), so I am counting them as a single movement, as there is not really any thematic break between the two.

The second movement bears a strong structural resemblance to that of the Mayer concerto (   • Charles Mayer; Piano Concerto in D, O...  ) I did a month ago - mainly in that they both build up to a climax where the orchestra plays the theme while the piano bangs out tremolos underneath. They're also both introduced in the same way - the first movements both kind of end unresolved until the second begins. Both were premiered in Paris within 5 years of each other, so it's possible there was some influence.

I'm a week late on this one, partly because I had other things to do, but also because I felt like this one required a bit more polish. It's possible I may change to a bi-weekly instead of a weekly release schedule so I'm not always in such a hurry to put these out. There was definitely a case of "too many notes" going on here, particularly in the finale. I hope the extra work paid off because this was a fun piece to do, both transcribing and playing it. I think this one definitely deserves a professional performance and recording. Hopefully someone with the means to do so will hear this at some point.

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.