Chopin: The Piano Concertos

John Rink. Chopin: The Piano Concertos. Cambridge Music Handbooks. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. x, 139 pp. ISBN 0-521-44109-9 (hardcover), 0-521-44660-0 (paperback). John Rink's consideration of Chopin's concertos, including the rarely-heard Allegro de concert, op. 46, embraces much more than the genesis, reception, form, and structure of three of the composer's most controversial works. Not that these important matters are overlooked; rather, in the course of his investigation, which includes a survey of other concertos of the period, a chapter on interpretation, and detailed analyses of each of the three works, Rink to set the record straight, re-evaluating the concertos against the early nineteenth-century traditions that shaped them so that their many outstanding qualities can be better appreciated (p. ix). In his analyses, Rink employs performance-related criteria ... [in an effort] to redress the anachronistic and tendentious criticisms of past authors (p. ix), from Frederich Niecks, whose study of Chopin appeared in 1888, to Michael Roeder, whose History of the Concerto appeared in 1994. Rink's contention is that Niecks 's criticisms of Chopin's concertos so influenced later writers, including Huneker, Leichentritt, Weissmann, Scharlitt, Abraham, Hedley, Weinstock, and Roeder, that a coalescence of critical response [is manifest in] three recurrent, almost inevitable criticisms; namely, that the formal plan, working out of themes, and orchestration of all three works are substandard (pp. 29-30). Rink's approach in chapter 1 is to place Chopin's concertos in the context of the early nineteenth-century piano concerto and of the composer's other early works. He reviews the genesis, early critical reception, first editions, and Chopin's pedagogical use of the concertos in chapter 2. Chapter 3 discusses interpretation from the standpoint of critics, editors, and performers, while chapter 4 attempts a re-evaluation of the concertos by surveying the form and tonal plan, and then supplying an analytical narrative for each movement. The final chapter is given over to Chopin's third piano concerto, the Allegro de concert, and appendices include bibliographies of reviews and editions, and a short discography. That all this even attempted, much less achieved, in only 130 pages is a testament to the author's focus and concision. Rink places Chopin's concertos squarely in the virtuoso tradition, distinct from the more symphonic works of Beethoven, Liszt, and Brahms. The stile brillante is linked to the world of opera, evident in the important recitativo passages in Moscheles's Piano Concerto in G Minor and in Chopin's own Piano Concerto in F Minor (p. 3). Virtuoso concertos in Chopin's concert repertoire, which doubtless influenced his own contributions to the genre, include works by Gyrowetz, Ries, Hummel, Moscheles, and Kalkbrenner (p. 5). This, then, establishes the broad context in which Chopin's contributions emerge as among the finest concertos of the early romantic era. The position of the concertos in Chopin's output is explored in detail. His early compositions extend from his apprenticeship in Warsaw, through his sojourns to Vienna in 1829 and 1830-31, to the works composed just after his arrival in Paris in August 1831. Rink divides these pieces into three groups: chamber music (including the Piano Sonata, op. 4, and Trio in G Minor, op. 8), smaller genres for mostly private performances (including the songs), and concert music (to which the variations, rondos, and concertos belong). Rink regards the Fantasy on Polish Airs, op. 13, and the Rondo a la krakowiak, op. 14, both composed in 1828 and belonging to the concert music category, as major advances over Chopin's earlier works. In particular, their introductions, and that to the La ci darem Variations, op. 2, of 1827, are important harbingers of the more personal and mature style evident in opp. …

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