Piano concerto in C minor - III Vivace

Hi everyone,

Here is the final movement of my Piano concerto in C minor. I began composing it in the first lockdown of 2020 (!), and finally managed to end this (time-consuming) work. The final movement is a rondo. I will surely write the plan of the movement in the next hours even though it is quite clear. I use the main theme of the concerto in this movement (the one of the first movement). If you want to be familiar again with the other movements of this concerto, here are the links:

Finally, here are the PDF and audio of the 3rd movement:

Maybe it’s a coincidence, but this actually reminds me a little of the piano concertos of Camille Saint-Saens, crossed with a lot of Rachmaninov.
Over all very good, the piano part is very well written and the orchestration is nicely done.

The one thing I found lacking though, is that you never really allow the piano to have a truly lyrical moment. When you bring in that more lyrical theme, you immediately shift the piano back to a more virtuoso passage. Even when the piano takes up that theme, it’s still very showy/virtuoso. Sometimes it’s the note you don’t play that are the most meaningful!

Other than that, great job!

Gentleman, a great piece of music!

Congrats.

Hi Camille @Camfrtt,

This is truly enjoyable as a romantic concerto. For the first run I just try to listen to it without my criticizing ear and I really enjoy it in its own sake. I think the structure here is more balanced and concise than that of the 1st movement. I really feel like this is a finale with less extended sections.

-I really like you take the D major, tonic of the last movement as the dominant of dominant here to begin the piece. That means you have cohesion of movements through keys in your mind!

-I love all those polyrhythms from start to finish, especially those within the piano itself, as it really varies and enriches the texture.

-Will b.30 woodwinds have less time to breathe with intense staccatos? I don't know but am just asking. (Same for the similar passage in the recap.)

-That horn chord in 50 is so mysterious. What follows is an absolute beauty and probably my favourite passage in the movement! Yes there's a change of tempo here and I don't mind at all, given how beautiful the melody is. The piano's elaboration on it is great too, maybe you can add one simpler lyrical version first before b.69's elaboration on it. But still it's pure gold.

-For me the development is well developed. That scherzando spirit from the 2nd movement is recapitulated in b.124! I like this. For me you can just go straight to D major without the pause as I feel like the flow is a bit disturbed here.

-It's great you enter the Neapolitan key for the recap. of the 2nd subject, before turning to tonic major. That A major chord (flat sixth of Db) is magical and to Ab and C major is also very magical.

-That's a great ending and fits the romantic tradition very well.

I really enjoy this one! Congrats Camille for finally finishing your Piano Concerto in C minor!! That's a great achievement given how young you are. Thanks for sharing your journey with us!

Henry

On 6/17/2023 at 8:38 PM, BipolarComposer said:

Maybe it’s a coincidence, but this actually reminds me a little of the piano concertos of Camille Saint-Saens, crossed with a lot of Rachmaninov.
Over all very good, the piano part is very well written and the orchestration is nicely done.

The one thing I found lacking though, is that you never really allow the piano to have a truly lyrical moment. When you bring in that more lyrical theme, you immediately shift the piano back to a more virtuoso passage. Even when the piano takes up that theme, it’s still very showy/virtuoso. Sometimes it’s the note you don’t play that are the most meaningful!

Other than that, great job!

Hello! Oh did you really see some similarities with Saint-Saëns? It is true that I love this composer, his 2nd concerto and his Egyptian concerto really were huge inspirations for the first movement of this concerto 🙂 

About your 2nd point: I think the piano has that particular lyrical moment in b.200. I know there are some polyrythms but the piano part in that section isn't difficult for the purpose of being showy, but simply to enrich the texture. Besides that, the piano really had some lyrical moment in the 2nd movement of the concerto. This 3rd movement is a vivace rondo, the main goal is not to be that lyric.

On 6/26/2023 at 11:44 AM, Willy Didier said:

Gentleman, a great piece of music!

Congrats.

Thank you so much !

On 7/5/2023 at 6:29 AM, Henry Ng Tsz Kiu said:

Hi Camille @Camfrtt,

This is truly enjoyable as a romantic concerto. For the first run I just try to listen to it without my criticizing ear and I really enjoy it in its own sake. I think the structure here is more balanced and concise than that of the 1st movement. I really feel like this is a finale with less extended sections.

-I really like you take the D major, tonic of the last movement as the dominant of dominant here to begin the piece. That means you have cohesion of movements through keys in your mind!

-I love all those polyrhythms from start to finish, especially those within the piano itself, as it really varies and enriches the texture.

-Will b.30 woodwinds have less time to breathe with intense staccatos? I don't know but am just asking. (Same for the similar passage in the recap.)

-That horn chord in 50 is so mysterious. What follows is an absolute beauty and probably my favourite passage in the movement! Yes there's a change of tempo here and I don't mind at all, given how beautiful the melody is. The piano's elaboration on it is great too, maybe you can add one simpler lyrical version first before b.69's elaboration on it. But still it's pure gold.

-For me the development is well developed. That scherzando spirit from the 2nd movement is recapitulated in b.124! I like this. For me you can just go straight to D major without the pause as I feel like the flow is a bit disturbed here.

-It's great you enter the Neapolitan key for the recap. of the 2nd subject, before turning to tonic major. That A major chord (flat sixth of Db) is magical and to Ab and C major is also very magical.

-That's a great ending and fits the romantic tradition very well.

I really enjoy this one! Congrats Camille for finally finishing your Piano Concerto in C minor!! That's a great achievement given how young you are. Thanks for sharing your journey with us!

Henry

Hi @Henry Ng Tsz Kiu!! Thank you for always taking the time to review my pieces!!

- You are right about the structure. I based this movement on the last movements of Tchaikovsky's concertos, which are rarely very long. I wanted it to wrap the concerto up without tiring the listener for too long! You also right for the D Major as dominant of dominant in the beginning (I did this transition for all the movements to have a cohesion in the whole piece).

- For the winds section, I asked my mother who is a flutist, and she said it may be hard to do, but it's doable.

- Horns b50: this may seem weird, but at the moment of writing it, I just "heard" it. I must have heard this transition somewhere in my life in some work and unconciously memorized it. Thanks a lot for what you said about the 2nd theme, this means a lot. I intended to write a PURE romantic melody in the tradition of the early romantics.

- You'll notice the the development (which is the C section of the rondo), is a rhapsody on the first theme of the concerto! 🙂 

Once again, thanks for all your comments! I find myself idle now that this concerto is finished. I may begin another grand project that will take me 3 other years to complete ahah. 

I have listened to the previous movements, which I did not know.
Overall, an impressive work.
The first movement is very good, true that the sound does not do justice, especially in the crescendi and tutti, but it is still magnificent, with a very well controlled development.
The second movement... wow.... The opening melody of the horns is gorgeous. The crescendo at about 2:35 beautiful. I had actually heard this movement before, glad to find it again.
The third movement didn't disappoint me at all either. It follows the romantic line of the previous ones. When it introduces the second theme at 1:30 it is delightful.
You can really feel the influence or inspiration from the late romantics.
Congratulations for such a great job.