Celebrated British pianist to perform rare concerto with Oklahoma City Philharmonic

Concert pianists pride themselves on the vast number of concerti listed on their resumes. These are works that have been carefully memorized and must be ready to perform at a moment's notice.

Not surprisingly, the usual suspects appear on nearly every artist's list: Tchaikovsky, Grieg, Ravel, Schumann, Prokofiev 3, Brahms 1 and 2, Rachmaninoff 2 and 3, Liszt 1 and 2, and Beethoven 3, 4 and 5.

Most pianists also will offer a handful of rarities, knowing full well that few of these works will ever be requested. Yet, on those rare occasions when a pianist can persuade a conductor to take a chance on an unfamiliar concerto, the rewards can be great.

Local audiences will have the opportunity Saturday to hear one such work when Stephen Hough and the Oklahoma City Philharmonic perform Dvorak's “Piano Concerto in G Minor, Op. 33.” Subtitled “A Masterpiece — A Surprise,” this first classics concert of the new year will also feature Tchaikovsky's “Symphony No. 6 in B Minor.” Joel Levine will conduct.

Hough has been a passionate advocate of Dvorak's only piano concerto for the past three years. The British pianist, who recently recorded it with Andris Nelsons and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, considers it a lost treasure that deserves to be heard.

picture: short formal dresses

“Sometimes, a pianist will read about this concerto and find it interesting,” Hough said recently. “Then he'll start looking at it and conclude that he's not sure it's worth the effort. I completely fell in love with it when I heard it. But learning it was very frustrating.

“You could work for a week on one passage and think you had it. Then you'd come back after a week and you'd be right back where you began. It's one of the hardest pieces I've ever learned. It's like your fingers are always in the wrong place.”

‘it's such a great piece'

Completed in September 1876, the piano concerto was written just two years before Dvorak composed his popular “Serenade in D Minor” (for winds) and his first set of “Slavonic Dances.”

After the concerto's premiere in 1878, the work languished in obscurity until Vilem Kurz reworked it in hopes the concerto would enter the repertoire. Curiously, Kurz's version and Dvorak's original appear side by side in the conductor's score.

“Kurz was a Czech pianist who wanted to make the piece more glossy, more like Liszt,” Hough said. “To me, Kurz dresses up a simple message in an overcomplicated language. It's like Dvorak wearing a pair of boots to a society ball.

“The concerto is all about a certain kind of charm, whimsy and peasant-like quality. It shouldn't sound too refined. Dvorak is at the opposite end of the spectrum from someone like Ravel.

“He's an outdoor composer, whereas Ravel is inside his French house. This work has a peasant, earthy quality to it. It's an early piece, but all of Dvorak's fingerprints are definitely there.”

For a community whose history of orchestral performances dates to 1924, one would think even a rarity such as the Dvorak piano concerto might have been programmed. But this will mark its first appearance in Oklahoma City.

“That's a thrill for me, because it's such a great piece,” Hough said. “I'm delighted to be able to play it. What I'd hope for is that a performance would have a tenderness and gentle passion about it. Also a whimsy that will affect audiences.

“It's music written by a good man. There's a humility about the piece that's touching. I've often had tears in my eyes when I play it. I'm thrilled that Joel agreed to program it. We'll do our best to pull it off.”

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