Concerto
for piano & orchestra (2018)
duration 28 minutes
instrumentation 2(2 dbl. pic.)222-4231-strings
premiere the original version (2016) was premiered 8th April 2016 by Katrine Gislinge and the Copenhagen Phil, conducted by Toshiyuki Kamioka, at the Concert Hall of the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen
score available from Donemus
duration 28 minutes
instrumentation 2(2 dbl. pic.)222-4231-strings
premiere the original version (2016) was premiered 8th April 2016 by Katrine Gislinge and the Copenhagen Phil, conducted by Toshiyuki Kamioka, at the Concert Hall of the Royal Danish Academy of Music, Copenhagen
score available from Donemus
program
My favourite piece of Beethoven’s is the slow movement from his fourth piano concerto. Here, the orchestra and piano have a dialogue, a call-and-response technique that takes its inspiration from the call-and-response of the music of church services. This gave me the idea of trying to create a musical representation of something similar to Jesus’s desert wandering or Buddha’s search for enlightenment. In both traditions the protagonist was tempted three times but through their unwavering determination reached their goals unhindered. I ended up creating this representation not as a call-and-response dialogue but instead by starting the concerto with the pianist musically ‘meditating’ on the concerto’s main theme. The three orchestral ‘temptations' grow from the distance, at first seductively but eventually evolving into passages of overwhelming aggressiveness. Each time, the orchestra’s advances are swiped away by the pianist before the orchestra finally surrenders in a slow sighing fall to its lowest reaches.
From these depths the piano now takes charge and sets the stage for a dramatic fast movement that lasts the rest of the first half of the concerto. The harmonies of the earlier temptations now return as orchestral pillars of sound that the piano rushes through as the once opposing forces start to work together in roles starting to resemble that of a Baroque concerto more than the familiar Romantic style. Here, rather than the soloist being the focal point throughout, I have the orchestra help the piano build its textures, with the pianist coming forward from the soundscape on occasion.
In the middle of the drama the orchestra plummets downwards setting off the piano on a solo where it attempts to build up a canon. It fails however, eventually slowing and subsiding into a short slow orchestral interlude, where there awakens a pre-echo of the music of the second half. After the drama returns and reaches towards its conclusion it is now the piano’s turn to plummet downwards, unleashing the same canon in the orchestra, which it successfully brings to its zenith.
The second half of the concerto is in many ways the antithesis of the first. Here we have a gentle movement with an explosive piano cadenza at its centre. After a quiet opening the piano introduces both pulse and melody as the orchestra takes a back seat. As the music progresses the instruments take on different constellations, beginning to swirl around and within the piano’s played range. After the tumult of the cadenza the music finds its opening phrases, though this time the pulse slowly starts to hasten as the piece moves towards its final climax and relaxation.
My favourite piece of Beethoven’s is the slow movement from his fourth piano concerto. Here, the orchestra and piano have a dialogue, a call-and-response technique that takes its inspiration from the call-and-response of the music of church services. This gave me the idea of trying to create a musical representation of something similar to Jesus’s desert wandering or Buddha’s search for enlightenment. In both traditions the protagonist was tempted three times but through their unwavering determination reached their goals unhindered. I ended up creating this representation not as a call-and-response dialogue but instead by starting the concerto with the pianist musically ‘meditating’ on the concerto’s main theme. The three orchestral ‘temptations' grow from the distance, at first seductively but eventually evolving into passages of overwhelming aggressiveness. Each time, the orchestra’s advances are swiped away by the pianist before the orchestra finally surrenders in a slow sighing fall to its lowest reaches.
From these depths the piano now takes charge and sets the stage for a dramatic fast movement that lasts the rest of the first half of the concerto. The harmonies of the earlier temptations now return as orchestral pillars of sound that the piano rushes through as the once opposing forces start to work together in roles starting to resemble that of a Baroque concerto more than the familiar Romantic style. Here, rather than the soloist being the focal point throughout, I have the orchestra help the piano build its textures, with the pianist coming forward from the soundscape on occasion.
In the middle of the drama the orchestra plummets downwards setting off the piano on a solo where it attempts to build up a canon. It fails however, eventually slowing and subsiding into a short slow orchestral interlude, where there awakens a pre-echo of the music of the second half. After the drama returns and reaches towards its conclusion it is now the piano’s turn to plummet downwards, unleashing the same canon in the orchestra, which it successfully brings to its zenith.
The second half of the concerto is in many ways the antithesis of the first. Here we have a gentle movement with an explosive piano cadenza at its centre. After a quiet opening the piano introduces both pulse and melody as the orchestra takes a back seat. As the music progresses the instruments take on different constellations, beginning to swirl around and within the piano’s played range. After the tumult of the cadenza the music finds its opening phrases, though this time the pulse slowly starts to hasten as the piece moves towards its final climax and relaxation.
Excerpt from 2nd movement