Wolf in wolfhound's clothing
A marble bust by Pietro Francavilla (late 16th century) in harmony with a painting by Agnolo Bronzino (mid 16th century).
At the museum this afternoon, I felt a sudden desire for a certain piece of music. I could play it in my head without a problem.
I was confident that it was a concert piece, the opening movement of a late Romantic-era piano concerto.
I put in my ear buds, went to Saint-Saëns - and went wrong. It wasn't one of his five piano concertos.
Francesco Zuccarelli: "Italian riverscape", ca. 1750
So I started wrecking my brain, humming the tune again and again: Was it Schumann's piano concerto? One of Chopin's or Liszt's? None of those fit.
Giovanni Paolo Pannini: "The Piazza Navona in Rome, flooded", 1756
I also dismissed Grieg and Ravel from consideration, but I was running out of realistic candidates, when finally it hit me:
It was the opening of Langgaard's 3rd symphony, history's most transparently disguised piano concerto (and initially conceived as one).
