Robert Muczynski: Piano Concerto No. 1, I. Maestoso | James Johnson, piano
Two months ago I returned home from a month-long cross-country road trip with CodyRay. We started in Binghamton, New York and drove in a big rectangle around the United States. Stopping at family houses in Florida, Texas, and Oregon, and in between them visiting a bayou in Mississippi, Pedernales Falls State Park in Texas, some larger national parks and forests on the West Coast, we were able to experience some incredibly beautiful parts of our country. Seeing the stars in Western Texas and New Mexico was unbelievably humbling and gorgeous. I would say close to triple or quadruple the amount of stars were visible there than what I was used to in Upstate New York.
During our 32-day car trip, we listened to lots of music. A lot of the same playlists repeated over and over... By the second or third week, I was desperate to never hear that opening “Hey” of Nightstand Drawer ever again. Sorry Heather... I wanted to delve much deeper into hidden gems of the “Classical“ world and other genres, so where else would be a better place to look while on the road - Thank you Spotify!
Kabalevsky came to mind while searching for new music, probably because I knew enough about him to know that I would like to listen to more of his music, but not enough to really know where to start. At the time I was searching for new piano concertos to learn for the concert of soloists at ASU. I stumbled across this recording of James Johnson in his double-bill recording of Kabalevsky’s 3rd Piano Concerto and Muczynski’s 1st (and unfortunately, only) Piano Concerto. It struck me so hard that I listened to the whole concerto on repeat for 3 or 4 times in a row. At the time, I didn’t even know who Robert Muczynski was (I actually thought I was listening to Kabalevsky.... oops).
Robert Muczynski (1929-2010) was born in Chicago, IL. He studied composition with Alexander Tcherepnin at DePaul University in Chicago.
“This concerto begins with a dramatic statement from the orchestra climaxed by a furious and percussive entrance by the solo piano.” This is one of the most cinematic piano concertos I’ve heard; between the jaunty opening by the orchestra and the turbulent chase to the finish in the piano. “The second subject is a sustained, lyrical contrast to the opening and leads to a development section of the first theme, treated in a series of variations with the usual rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic transformations. Restatements of the essential subjects follow--and the first movement closes brilliantly.” I was describing his style in this piece to a friend as a mix between the music of John Williams and Joe Hisaishi (Composer of Miyazaki film scores) with some Russian/Eastern European spice.
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