Vilém Kurz

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Vilém Kurz (1872-1945) was a Czech pianist and piano teacher, a professor at the State Conservatory in Lviv and Vienna, and Prague Conservatory. His students included Eduard Steuermann, Bretislav Bakala, Rudolf Firkusny, Pavel Štěpán , František Maxián, and Gidéon Klein.

Kurz is known for his reworking of the solo part of Antonin Dvořák's Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 33, which was originally composed in 1876. For more than a decade after the concerto's first performance, it suffered from neglect and critical disdain. A common remark for many years was that the piano part was written "as if for two right hands."

While he was in his 20s, Kurz undertook a revision of the solo part, and it is this version that he frequently performed. Since that time, the original and the Kurz versions have been printed together in Otakar Šourek's critical edition of the score, one beneath the other, so that the soloist can choose which version to perform. The Kurz version has become a part of the standard piano repertoire. Dvořák's original orchestral material is not affected by the soloist's choice.^[1]

Supraphon, the Czech recording company, issued a compact disc on which Ivan Moravec plays the Kurz version, with the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Jiří Bĕlohlávek, while Radoslav Kvapil plays the composer's original score, with the Brno State Philharmonic under František Jílek.

[edit] References

1. ^ About the Composition: Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 33. The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.