Piano Concerto No.2 - 3rd Movt. Final edit

Listen to Piano Concerto No.2 3rd Movt (Final edit) by Mark McDonald on #SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/rjHBs

Hi all,

This is the final edit of the 3rd Movt of my 2nd piano Concerto. I've extended the cadenza and ironed out the wrinkles along the way. For some reason I couldn't stop twiddling with it until I got it to this point, but now that I have, I'm happy to think of it as finished and leave it without further twiddles! I've now started working the material I have for the 1st and 2nd movements so hopefully I might have a completed work in another couple of years 😂. Anyway, I hope you like it and if you did hear the first version, I'd be interested to know what you think of the differences. This particular movement started life a few years ago as a piano improvisation and gradually got molded into what it is now, as did most of the material for the other movements, let's see where they end up!

Hi all,

I've not posted anything for over a year, been busy with other things, but I have also been working on my second piano concerto.  I have the bones of the 1st and 2nd movements, but there is still a lot of work to do on those.  I do however, have the 3rd movement finished (barring a few minor edits that might arise over the next few weeks), and so I thought I would like to share this with you all.  Thanks for listening.

It's a bit more modern than my first piano concerto, I wouldn´t say contemporary exactly, and like all of my work, it is a tonal, classical piece.

I hope you like it and as always, any and all comments are welcome and replied to.  If anyone would like to see the score, it's mess lol but available if you want.

Kind regards
Mark

https://soundcloud.com/user-729021187/piano-concerto-no2-3rd-movt

Enjoyed that Mark, very energetic, well done and thanks for sharing 

This seems to be a very development-heavy piece.  Scarcely do I get to hear the first seven bar theme before you start using it to compose virtuosic variations for the piano.  And I feel very hard pressed to find any other place in the concerto where that theme comes back.  There are melodies in the middle of this but they don't seem to be related to that introductory theme.  I liked your cadenza - very idiomatic if maybe a little short.  I wish more of your concerto was melodic.  There are plenty of little motifs in the piano of course but you seem to place a secondary importance on the melody and use it only for the sake of the pianos virtuosity.  I did like the virtuosity - kept things exciting but I didn't end up humming a tune by the end of this.  Great ending too btw.  Thanks for the music!

Thanks you Mike, I'm glad you liked it, I do appreciate it.

PaperComposer,

Thanks a lot for you comments, I appreciate it.  I do feel there is some variety lacking in the piano developments and the cadenza could be longer as you say, take in more of the developments.  Also I want to change the recapitulation a little, but I got it to a stage where I think the bones are good, and I never stop tinkering with these things, so by the time the 1st and 2nd movements are ready, it may well have changed a bit.  The opening (theme) does make a return in the cadenza, but not anywhere else, I did try to find a place to shoe horn it in, but that´s exactly what it sounded like, so I took it out.

It's hard for me to be objective I think, I've heard it thousands of times and I know all of the melodies and I have them running round in my head so to me, I do hum the tunes and see how it hangs together, but perhaps a first time listener would be hard pressed to pick out a good tune.

My main reason for posting a piece at this stage is to get comments like your, that let me see it from a different perspective, and to adapt what I have if I think those comments are valid.  Rest assured that I do value you response and I will keep it in mind as I'm tinkering LOL.

Thanks again

Kind regards
Mark