Best Concertos for Clarinet

Although I prefer the oboe among woodwind instruments, recently, I have also come to appreciate the clarinet with its rich variety of expression and its warm timbre - perhaps I am getting "mellow", too. The clarinet's expressive power has attracted composers like Mozart, Weber, Spohr, Mendelssohn, Krommer, Pleyel, Stamitz, Brahms and many others. So it is time to delve deeper into clarinet music!

The clarinet is a relative newcomer among woodwind instruments. It is generally believed to have been invented by the Nuremberg instrument maker Johann Christoph Denner (1655-1707) at the start of the 18th c., based on the more primitive chalumeau. The name comes from "clarinetto," a diminutive of the Italian "clarino," a type of trumpet, and points at its rich sound register of approximately 4 octaves (the largest of any woodwind instrument). 

The clarinet produces sound by means of a single reed attached to the mouthpiece.
A number of physical finger keys are attached to the cylindrical section and are used to vary the pitch. The configuration that is now standard was perfected by Klosé in the mid-nineteenth century, based on the ideas of Theobald Boehm, and is therefore called the "Boehm clarinet." For making a clarinet, since the second half of the 19th c., grenadilla wood has been mainly used. This wood is almost black in color and is also used for piccolos and oboes.

The clarinet's cylindrical bore distinguishes it from the oboe and saxophone, both of which have conical bores. Its warm tone in the low register can be extremely bright and even piercing in the high register. The soprano clarinet (in B♭) is the most common model, but there are also clarinets in A, E♭ or C.

In classical music, clarinets are part of the standard orchestra, which frequently includes two clarinetists playing individual parts - each player is usually equipped with a pair of standard clarinets in B♭ and A, and clarinet parts commonly alternate  several times between these instruments during a concert. Clarinet sections grew larger during the last few decades of the 19th century, often employing a third clarinetist, an E♭ or a bass clarinet. 

The clarinet is also widely used as a solo instrument. The relatively late evolution of the clarinet (when compared to other orchestral woodwinds) means that we have  almost no works from the Baroque era - the first concerto was written in the 1740s by Molter. In contrast, solo repertoire from the Classical and early Romantic periods is very rich. In the 1790s (when Mozart wrote his famous concerto) and the early 1800s many beautiful clarinet concertos saw the light of day. There is a dip in the high Romantic period, but the we see more concertos again in the 20th c., with a bulge in the 1940s.

The clarinet also plays an important role in chamber music, for example clarinet sonatas, clarinet trios, quartets and quintets. Here we will look at the concertos for clarinet, the chamber music will be discussed in another post.

So what are the best clarinet concertos?

1. Johann Melchior Molter, Clarinet Concerto in D (between 1743 and 1747)

Johann Melchior Molter (1696-1765) is a German Baroque composer who was influenced by Telemann (his teacher) and Lully, but also stood with one leg in early Classicism. He wrote five clarinet concertos, the earliest we know. He used a high clarinet in D with two keys. This instrument played well in the middle register with a loud, shrill sound, so it was given the name clarinetto meaning "little trumpet" (from clarino + -etto) - and indeed it not only has a trumpet-like sound, but is also treated as a trumpet by the composer. The deep register is not used and there are many trumpet-like fanfares.

Recording listened to: Thomas Friedli (clarinet) with South-West German Chamber Orchestra, Paul Angerer on Claves.

2. Johann Stamitz, Clarinet Concerto in B flat major (before 1757)

Johann Stamitz (1717-1757) came from an Austrian family of musicians. In 1745, he became court chapel master in Mannheim and made the orchestra consisting of excellent European top-class musicians famous throughout Europe. He thus became the founder of the so-called Mannheimer School, which had a great influence on the development of the symphony and the manner of orchestral playing. Stamitz developed a new orchestral style and gave the symphony a fourth movement in the form of the minuet; the wind instruments such as the clarinet were given more weight in the orchestra - the clarinet made its entry into the German court orchestras around 1750. Stamitz' music is stylistically transitional between Baroque and Classical periods.

His two sons, Carl and Anton Stamitz, were also active as instrumentalists and composers and especially Carl wrote many clarinet concertos (see below).

Listen to: Clarinet: Sérgio Pires; Orchestra: Musikkollegium Winterthur

3. Carl Stamitz, Concerto in B flat major for Two Clarinets and Orchestra (ca. 1780)

The new orchestral sound of the Mannheim court orchestra mentioned above, was partially due to the clarinet, which also became an epoch-making solo instrument. One of the instrument's foremost protagonists was Carl Stamitz (1745-1801), eldest son of Johann Stamitz. Eleven concertos for clarinet alone by Carl Stamitz (of which 9 are definitely by him) as well as several double concertos are known to us. At age 25, Carl moved to Paris where he became internationally famous as "Stamitz-fils." He became the musical director of the private orchestra of the Duke of Noailles, and also met the famous clarinet virtuoso Johann Beer, with whom he played together. One such composition is the present double concerto, which they performed at the "Concerts spirituels." One clarinet part can also be played on the violin, as in the recording below.

Nazar Yasnytskyy, violin, and Taras Demchyshyn, clarinet; Hibiki Strings of Japan.

4. Ignaz Pleyel, Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra in C, Ben106 (before 1797, probably 1780s)

The problem with Pleyel's concertos is that each work survives in several settings - and solistic versions, respectively. One concerto (Ben104) is for example known in 9 versions for cello, but there are also versions of the same work for viola, clarinet, flute, oboe, bassoon and fortepiano! The above concerto Ben106 is known in versions in C major for clarinet but also for cello and for flute. It was notated in C (and thus for a C clarinet) because that was the best common denominator for these 3 solo instruments (and it also meant it could be avoided to have several different versions for these instruments printed) - it was not because of any special ideas of sound. As the C clarinet has a rather sharp tone and is today almost never used for classical virtuoso concertos, the work is also often played transposed to the key of B flat. It is a superior work and is regarded as the most important clarinet concerto prior to Mozart, in which the whole palette of the clarinet is explored - it was first published in 1797, later than Mozart's concerto, but probably dates from the 1780s when Pleyel was active in Strasbourg.

Recording listened to: Dieter Kloecker, Clarinet, and Suedwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim, conducted by Sebastian Tewinkel on CPO.

5. Antonio Rosetti, Concerto No. 1 in E flat major for Clarinet and Orchestra (ca. 1781)

This concerto by the Bohemian composer Antonio Rosetti (František Antonín Rössler, 1750-1792) was already in wide circulation during the 18th c. and also exists in a version for flute (transposed to G). It begins with an energetic Allegro assai - in this early work already pointing to the style of Rosettti's later symphonies. The high virtuosity of the clarinet is a sure indication of Rosetti's familiarity with virtuoso works for the instrument. The slow movement is a Romance which gives the opportunity for an intimate dialogue between clarinet and orchestra - not without a certain melancholy. A spirited Rondo concludes the concerto with a bouncy melody and virtuoso passage work. Rosetti's style in this concerto demonstrates a happy combination of French elements with melodies of Bohemian character.

Recording listened to: Dieter Kloecker, Clarinet, with SWR-Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg conducted by Holger Schroeter-Seebeck on CPO.

6. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Clarinet Concerto in A major K. 622 (1791)

Mozart wrote a magnificent work for clarinet, for Anton Stadler, a close friend and a clarinet and basset horn virtuoso in the Vienna Court Orchestra. The oboe has an almost uniform tone, whereas the clarinet is attractive in that its tone changes according to the lower, middle, and higher registers, allowing for a greater range and depth of expression. Mozart had already well grasped these characteristics of the clarinet, which was still a new instrument at the time, and especially made the lowest notes resonate well enough to create a contrasting effect with the higher notes. In this aspect, he is said to have set the precedent for Weber and other Romantic composers.

The fact that both the Clarinet Concerto and the Clarinet Quintet are in A major with the A clarinet instead of the more common B-flat clarinet, seems to have been Mozart's intention. A major, along with G minor, is a tonality that is perfectly suited to the qualities of Mozart's music, which always has a pleasantly lively and sensual mood, and this piece is incomparably beautiful because it blends these tones magnificently into the quiet, clear sound that is typical of Mozart's last years.

(Partly cited from my blog article Music in A Major) 

Listen to: Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Cornelius Meister, conductor, with Arngunnur Árnadóttir, clarinet.

7. Jean Xavier Lefèvre, Clarinet Concerto No. 4 in B flat (1797)

Another musician who was active in Paris was Swiss-born Jean Xavier Lefèvre (1763-1829, who wrote (among other works) six concertos for clarinet and a sinfonia concertante for clarinet and bassoon. He played the first clarinet in the Paris Grand Opera Orchestra and was one of the first clarinet teachers employed by the Conservatoire (founded in 1795), so that he exercised a lasting influence on the development of the new generation of French clarinettists. Besides that, he was also a pioneer of clarinet construction.

"The melodies of the almost symphonic first movement of the 4th concerto in B flat, put one in mind of Mozart. Lefevre shares a predilection for wide leaps with his pupil Henrik Crusell (see No. 11 below). Lefevre further complicates these with short thrills, which he also adds to rapid triplet runs in order to display his skill. The slow movement's sightly melancholy character is underlined by the first violins' descending chromatisms, The Rondo-Finale mixes tutti repeats of the main theme with a richly decorated G minor episode and brilliant sextuplets for maximum variety. The work ends with a thematic quote from the beginning." (Cited from liner notes by Walter Labhart)

Recording listened to: Eduard Brunner, Clarinet, with Muenchener Kammerorchester conducted by Reinhard Goebel on Tudor.

8. Antonio Casimir Cartellieri, Concerto for Two Clarinets & Orchestra in B flat major (1797)

Cartellieri was active in  Vienna during his short life and shares the period style with the young Beethoven. This concerto opens with a dramatic timpani stroke, like the two opening explosive chords of Beethoven’s Eroica. But it is also a light and merry concerto, with excitingly voluble dialogues of the two solo clarinets and a boisterous Rondo-finale. The orchestral outbursts display a dramatic impact and grandeur that go beyond Mozart and Haydn (and the presence of trumpets in the orchestration certainly contributes). The reflexive Larghetto may als remind of the middle movement of Beethoven's Violin Concerto, not just because of its identity of tempo indication, but because of the accompaniment from the strings' pizzicati that occurs at various points. The first movement also has not one but two cadenzas, which is something not often encountered in the music of the era. Cartellieri's double concerto was spurred, with many others by composers of the era, by the improvements of the instrument’s design and the appearance of new generations of virtuosi. 

Recording listened to: Dieter Klöcker and Sandra Arnold, clarinet, with Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra conducted by Pavel Prantl on MDG.

9. Joseph Leopold Eybler, Concerto in B flat major for Clarinet and Orchestra (1798)

A charming, refreshing concerto. Eybler's Clarinet Concerto in B-flat major was written in 1798, probably for Mozart's clarinetist Anton Stadler, the clarinet superstar of his times. Closely demonstrating the musical influences of Mozart and Haydn, it is a marvelous concerto by a truly underrated composer who deserves to be better known.

Although Joseph Leopold Edler von Eybler (1765 - 1846) was a contemporary and friend of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, he lived 55 years longer. Eybler was born into a musical family in Schwechat near Vienna. His father was a teacher, choir director and friend of the Haydn family. Joseph Eybler studied music with his father before attending Stephansdom (the cathedral school of St. Stephen's Boys College) in Vienna. He studied composition under Johann Georg Albrechtsberger, who declared him to be the greatest musical genius in Vienna apart from Mozart. He also received praise from Haydn who was his friend, distant cousin and patron.

Performance listened to: Eduard Brunner, clarinet, with Bamberg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hans Stadlmair on Tudor.

10. Franz Krommer, Clarinet Concerto in E flat Op 36 (1803)

A lyrical clarinet concerto that follows the classical model, with a long, engaging first movement containing a double exposition. The Adagio has a plaintive solo line while the finale skips along joyously, entirely untroubled. Krommer – a violinist himself – clearly loved writing for woodwinds, as he also composed two double clarinet concertos.

The Moravian composer František Vincenc Kramář (also: Franz Krommer, 1759 - 1831) studied in Vienna from 1785. Then he entered into various positions in Hungary, but in 1810 he returned to Vienna. After the death of Leopold Anton Kozeluch, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's successor, in the year 1818, Kramář was appointed imperial court composer and court chapel master at the court of the Emperor of Austria. 

As a composer, he wrote more than 300 works, including more than 100 string quartets, violin, oboe and clarinet concertos, works for harmony music, wind suites, masses and sacred music. In terms of style, he is in the tradition of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn, but he also uses Hungarian elements in several compositions. 

Listen to: Clarinetist - Tang Weiguo; Guiyang Symphony Orchestra; Conductor - Yang Yang;

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11. Bernhard Hendrik Crusell, "Grand" Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra No. 2 in F minor, Op.5 (1808)

One of the most celebrated clarinet concertos by Crusell, who was born in Finland, but studied and worked in Sweden, Germany and France. In 1803 he studied the clarinet in Paris under Lefebre, and later wrote three clarinet concertos. The layout of the three movements of this concerto is firmly classical, although here and there one notices the influence of Beethoven, for example in the concentrated and dramatic opening ritornello. But with the arrival of the clarinet the piece becomes predominantly lyrical, despite wide leaps and virtuoso passage-work. The slow movement is an Andante pastorale in D flat major and has much of the romantic warmth traditionally associated with that key. It is scored for clarinet and strings alone. Despite the return to F minor, the final Rondo is high-spirited and provides ample opportunity for technical display.

Listen to: Han Kim with Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Hannu Lintu.

12. Louis Spohr, Clarinet Concerto No. 1 in C Minor, Op.26 (1808)

The music of Louis Spohr displays fine craftsmanship within a conventional, bourgeois epoch between Classicism and Romanticism. His four clarinet concertos were inspired by Gotha clarinettist Johann Simon Hermstedt, who was known for the beautiful sound with which he played. The dramatic opening Adagio of the first concerto includes the germ of the first subject of the following Allegro, taken up by the clarinet and embroidered with brilliance. The same thematic material is the source of the lyrical second subject. The second movement, an Adagio, starts with a clarinet melody of moving simplicity and potential dramatic content. This serene movement gives way to the final Rondo, its principal theme announced by the clarinet. The lively movement  provides a brilliant conclusion to this fascinating concerto.

Listen to: Aron Chiesa with Brussel Philharmonic Orchestra, dir. Antonio Saiote

13. Philip Jakob Riotte, Clarinet Concerto in B-flat major Op. 24 (1809)

This clarinet concerto formed the debut as composer of Riotte - it was first performed in 1804 by clarinettist Hofmann, who deceived Riotte by selling it to a publisher and pocketing the money. So the composer changed the dedication and published the concerto with Breitkopf in 1809. The orchestral forces employed, the structure and the themes are based on the tradition of Mozart and Haydn. Its melodies are attractive and the harmonic progressions often provide surprising turns that already point toward romantic trends. In the solidly constructed first movement the technical capabilities of the clarinet are fully explored. The slow movement spotlights the cantabile character of the clarinet's middle range. The concluding rondo is typical for the time: the Polonaise rhythm employed was very popular at the turn of the century - and a final stretta is not lacking. A valuable addition to the clarinet repertoire.

Performance listened to: Dieter Kloecker, clarinet, with Stuttgarter Kammerorchester conducted by Gernot Schmalfuss on Novalis.

14. Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen, Concerto in B flat major for clarinet and orchestra, Op. 3 (1809?)

Johann Georg Heinrich Backofen (1768 – 1830?) was a German clarinetist, composer and painter. In his time Backofen enjoyed great fame; he was not only known as a composer for, and virtuoso of the clarinet, but also played the harp, flute and basset horn. His year of death is not known with certainty; a year of 1839 is found in some documents.

Backofen wrote three clarinet concertos, mainly for his own use, at a time when Spohr and Weber were also creating exceptional works for the clarinet. Backofen's concertos formed part of the early romantic atmosphere - especially in his slow movements he immersed himself in an emotional world which pointed ahead to the future. Qua form, Backofen was still based in Viennese Classicism. The solo winds in the orchestra play in splendid correspondence to the solo instrument. Interestingly, his concluding movements (as in this concerto) often possess a Spanish coloration.

Heartfelt music that is immediately accessible to the listener.

Recording listened to: Dieter Kloecker with SWR Rundfunkorchester Kaiserslautern conducted by Johannes Moesus on CPO.

15. Weber, Clarinet Concerto no. 1 in F minor, Op. 73 (1811)

Written for the great Heinrich Baermann in 1811, Weber’s First Clarinet Concerto is an excellent showpiece. The opening movement has a lengthy, dramatic orchestral introduction before the clarinet steals in, eventually breaking into virtuoso display. The stormy nature of the movement shows itself to be quite capable of assimilating the clarinet's gift for lively melody and virtuosity., just as the beautiful song that opens the Adagio can yield naturally to bright arpeggios decorating it. The most original feature of the movement is the slow chorale-like melody on the horns, against whose sombre tone the clarinet utters a new melody. The finale is a nimble Rondo shot through with a wit that no one has quite seen in the clarinet's character before - there are soprano trills but also frequent descents into the instrument’s bass register.

Listen to: Jörg Widmann (clarinet, conductor) with the WDR Symphony Orchestra.

16. Ernesto Cavallini, Clarinet Concerto No 1 in E flat major (1827)

The Italian clarinettist Ernesto Cavallini (1807-1874) has been called "the Paganini of the clarinet." He became the principal clarinetist of La Scala and also taught at the Milan Conservatory. He also spent 15 years performing in St Petersburg from 1852 to 1867. Cavallini played on a six-key boxwood clarinet, which was considered an "outdated" instrument.

As a composer, he is best known for several small pieces as Adagio and Tarantella, Adagio Sentimental, his fantasies, and his 30 Caprices for Clarinet. Cavallini wrote two clarinet concertos. The present one in E flat major was written when the composer was just 20 years of age and premiered by him at the La Scala Theater. It has a classical form. The initial Allegro serves as an introduction and has long cadenzas of the clarinet. The Adagio cantabile has a singing and operatic character and the last Allegro develops some virtuoso variations. Cavallini cited Rossini as an influence in his compositions,

Recording listened to: Giuseppe Porgo, clarinet, with Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock conducted by Johannes Moesus on CPO.

 

17. Carl Nielsen, Clarinet Concerto (1928)

The most influential clarinet concerto of the 20th century is the Nielsen concerto. The Danish composer abandoned classical concerto form - the concerto consists of one long movement, with four thematic groups. It is full of mood swings, and technical solo passages.

The orchestra in this concerto has been reduced to what can be called a chamber orchestra; in addition to strings, there are only 2 bassoons, 2 horns and a small drum on stage. This snare drum has a very prominent role.

Listen to: Sebastian Manz, clarinet, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, Dirigent: Herbert Blomstedt

18. Igor Stravinsky, Ebony Concerto for clarinet and jazz band (1945)

Igor Stravinsky wrote the Ebony Concerto in 1945 for the Woody Herman band. It is one in a series of compositions commissioned by the bandleader/clarinetist featuring solo clarinet, and the score is dedicated to him.

Stravinsky decided to create a jazz-based version of a concerto grosso, with a blues as the slow movement. The first movement is a sonata-allegro in B♭ major with a second subject in E♭ major. The second movement is a blues in F minor, turning to F major at the end. The finale is a theme and variations with a coda. The final variation, marked "Vivo", features the solo clarinet in one last virtuoso display.

Listen to: Chris Richards, clarinet, with London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Simon Rattle

19. Paul Hindemith, Clarinet Concerto (1947)

Paul Hindemith's Clarinet Concerto is the first of a series of concertos for wind instruments composed between 1947 and 1949. It was written in 1947 for Benny Goodman, who premiered it in 1950 with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy.

In neo-classical style, it is composed of four movements: the first is a symphonic allegro, very lyrical and full of energy; the second is a complex and witty scherzo; the third is a very graceful pastoral; and the last movement is a lively rondo, which underlines Hindemith's interest in the clarinet as a lyrical instrument.

Listen to: Adrián Hernández Altelarrea, clarinet, with 'Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel' Symphony Orchestra conducted by Dirk Vermeulen

20. Aaron Copland: Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra (1948)

Benny Goodman himself commissioned Aaron Copland to write him a clarinet concerto in 1947 and nor surprisingly, Copland incorporated many jazz elements into his concerto. Copland wrote about it: "Since the instrumentation consists of clarinet, strings, harp, and piano, I didn't have a large percussion section to create jazzy effects, so I used clapping basses and beating harp sounds to simulate them. The Clarinet Concerto ends with a rather elaborate coda in C major that concludes with a clarinet glissando - or "smear" in jazz parlance."

The piece is written in an unusual form. There are two movements which are connected by a composed clarinet cadenza about 2½ minutes long. The first movement, Slowly and expressively, is written in A-B-A form and is full of bittersweet lyricism. The cadenza not only gives the soloist an opportunity to show off his virtuosity, but also introduces many of the melodic Latin jazz themes that dominate the second movement, Rather Fast. The overall form of the final movement is a free-form rondo with several developing secondary themes that resolve at the end in an elaborate coda in C major. Copland remarked that his playful finale consisted of "an unconscious fusion of elements obviously related to North and South American popular music (for example, a phrase from a currently popular Brazilian tune I had heard in Rio was embedded in the secondary material)."

Listen to: Martin Fröst, clarinet, with Norwegian Chamber Orchestra

21. Gerald Finzi, Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra Op. 31 (1949)

Gerald Finzi’s Clarinet Concerto is the finest in the English repertoire. Its moods range from the folkish high spirits of the outer movements to the wistful intimacy of the central adagio. The first movement is often Elgarian in style. It alternates between vigorous, argumentative strings and the more tenderly lyric mood delivered by the clarinet. There is a strong feeling of the English countryside as in so many of this composer's works. The rhapsodic slow movement opens in almost mystical meditation by muted high strings. The lower strings then usher in the movement's principal theme in very Elgarian melancholic nobilmente mood - with the clarinet wandering mournfully around it.  The joyous and carefree rondo finale trips along to one of Finzi's most light-hearted and attractive melodies. Material from the preceding movements is recalled, but the concerto ends with an impetuous flourish.

Listen to: David Hattner, clarinet, with the Portland Youth Philharmonic conducted by Huw Edwards.

22. Jean Francaix, Clarinet Concerto (1967-68)

Jean Françaix has a strong knowledge of the clarinet, which is reflected in this concerto with the French humor typical of the composer. This piece contains multiple acrobatic features of formidable technical difficulty intended to charm the listeners and arouse their attention, apart from the Andantino which is set back from the lively movements (Allegro, Scherzando and Allegrissimo). The work is broadly in line with the French neo-romantic trend, which favors pirouettes, comic phrases, unusual measures, and dynamic contrasts. The different movements of the concerto allow the composer to highlight a writing of great diversity to which the clarinet responds instantly with its own qualities: sentimentality, flexibility, and virtuosity.

This French concerto belongs to the best concertos for clarinet and charms both the public and the soloists. Jean Françaix uses a four-movement form, strongly influenced by the multi-movement sonata form, instead of the usual three-movement concerto model.

Listen to: José-Luis Inglés, clarinet, with Sinfonieorchester Basel, Anu Tali, conductor

[With thanks to relevant public domain articles in either the German, Japanese, Dutch or English Wikipedia]

Music in A Minor

A minor is a melancholy key, expressing tenderness and sadness, and having a lamenting, dignified, and subdued character.

A minor is a minor scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has no flats and no sharps. Its relative major is C major and its parallel major is A major.

Since the key of A minor does not use a key signature, it is considered easy to read and suitable for beginners. Violins, violas, and cellos also have an open A string, and it is frequently found in concertos. 

Bach not only wrote one of his well-known violin concertos in A minor, but also used that key for his concerto for 4 harpsichords, based on Vivaldi. During the Classical period, orchestral music rarely used A minor as the principal key, but in the Romantic period, A minor became very popular. In 1816, Hummel wrote one of his best concertos in that key, and it apparently was a favorite key of Schumann, but also Mendelssohn, Grieg, Brahms, Saint-Saens, and Tchaikovsky wrote important work in this key. As we for example hear in the Scottish Symphony of Mendelssohn, one of the most high Romantic musical works I know, A minor is beautifully suited to the expression of feelings of melancholy.

In the 20th c. we for example have the violin concerto No 1 by Shostakovitch and the Oboe Concerto by Vaughan Williams, as well as the Sixth Symphony by Mahler.

Characteristic music in A minor:

Johann Sebastian Bach, Concerto in A minor for 4 Harpsichords BWV 1065

Largely based on Vivaldi's Concerto in B minor for four violins and orchestra. But in Bach’s version the soloists play harpsichords and B minor was changed into A minor. Bach made a number of transcriptions of Antonio Vivaldi's concertos, especially from his Op. 3 set L'estro armonico. Bach adapted them for solo harpsichord and solo organ, but for the Concerto for 4 violins in B minor, Op. 3 No. 10, he decided upon the unique solution of using four harpsichords and orchestra. This is the only orchestral harpsichord concerto by Bach which was not an adaptation of his own music. In the middle movement, Bach has the four harpsichords playing differently-articulated arpeggios in a very unusual tonal blend, while providing some additional virtuosity and tension in the other movements. All three movements are in the same key of A minor.

Siebe Henstra, Menno van Delft, Pieter-Jan Belder and Tineke Steenbrink and Netherlands Bach Society.

Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Piano Concerto No. 2 in A minor Op. 85

The Piano Concerto No. 2 in A minor was composed by Hummel in 1816 and published in Vienna in 1821. While Hummel's earlier concertos followed Mozart's style almost to the letter, this concerto and the next are written in a prototypical Romantic style, foreshadowing developments that were to come later from composers such as Mendelssohn and Chopin. The piece is also written to show off Hummel's own virtuosity.

The three movements are:
1st movement Allegro moderato (A minor)
2nd movement Larghetto in F major
3rd movement Rondo, Allegro moderato (A minor)

Els Biesemans plays Hummel Piano Concerto No. 2 in A Minor Op. 85 on Fortepiano
Capriccio Barockorchester on period instruments

 

Felix Mendelssohn, Symphony No. 3 ("Scottish", 1829-1842)

In the summer of 1829, the 20-year-old Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy made a three-week visit to Scotland which was to result in the writing of two of his best-loved works: the Overture – The Hebrides, and the Symphony No 3 in A minor (Scottish). But the symphony was only completed on January 20, 1842.

The 4 movements (played without pause) are:
(1) Introduction and allegro agitato - the slow introduction to the first movement, with its unusual scoring of woodwind and violas suggests the “broken and moldering” chapel of Holyrood, and the subdued mood continues at the opening of the Allegro un poco agitato with the long main theme given pianissimo on violins and clarinet; we have to wait until well into the Allegro before the force of the full orchestra is unleashed. Rather than a second subject in the relative major, Mendelssohn chooses a plaintive theme in the dominant key of E minor which extends the sombre mood still further.
(2) Scherzo assai vivace - this scherzo movement has been likened to a gathering of highlanders making merry, and it has also been suggested that the main theme is reminiscent of the Scottish folk-tune "Charlie is my darling."
(3) Adagio cantabile - a beautiful Adagio which has been described as a lament for Mary Queen of Scots.
(4) Allegro guerriero and finale maestoso - the Finale is marked Allegro Guerriero – fast and warlike – and the music strongly suggests a battle, with its restless syncopations which dominate the movement and the underlying four-square tread of the lower instruments which could be soldiers on a quick march. At the end of the movement the music comes to a virtual stop and is followed by a curious coda which presents a theme which sounds new, although it is related to the very opening theme of the Symphony. The majestic melody begins with the lower strings and the woodwind doubling each other at the bottom of their register before it gradually rises up as if escaping the mists with which Mendelssohn had become so familiar in the Highlands. The Symphony ends in triumph with horns blazing above the full orchestra.

Like his concert overtures, the symphony is a series of mood picture intended to stimulate the imagination of the audience rather than presenting a distinct narrative. The first and last movements, with their virile orchestration, evoke the atmosphere of Walter Scott's historical romances; the second movement introduces dance-like melodic and rhythmic material with a distinctly Scottish flavor and the recitative-like opening of the beautiful slow movement reinforces the impression of a hidden narrative to which individual listeners can respond in their own way.

hr-Sinfonieorchester – Frankfurt Radio Symphony - Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Dirigent

Robert Schumann, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A minor Op 54 (1845)

In 1841, Schumann wrote a Fantasy in A minor for piano and orchestra, which was premiered at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig on Aug. 13, 1841, with Schumann's wife Clara Wieck as soloist. She urged him to make it a full-fledged three-movement concerto. In 1845, he added an Intermezzo and a Finale to complete the work. It became the only full piano concerto Schumann wrote. The complete concerto was premiered in Dresden on Dec. 4, 1845, with Clara soloing and Ferdinand Hiller (to whom the work was dedicated) conducting.

There are 3 movements: Allegro affettuoso (A minor) - intermezzo (in F major) and allegro vivace (in A major).

The concerto is notable for its remarkable coherence, despite the piecemeal manner of its composition. Underlying the work's unity is the fact that it is virtually mono-thematic: most of the materials of the outer movements (each cast in free sonata form) are generated by or are transformations of the concerto's introspective, rhythmically ingenious opening theme. Even the motif of the poetic dialogue that serves as the slow movement is founded on a four-note rhythmic cell from that theme.
 

An eminently beautiful concerto from beginning to end, lyrical, spacious and balanced in form, and rich and various in its ideas.

Schumann's wife, Clara Schumann-Wieck, had already 10 years before her husband, in 1835, composed a piano concerto, that interestingly is also in A minor, and that was also completed by adding two movements to an original single concerto movement.

hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Khatia Buniatishvili ∙ Paavo Järvi

Robert Schumann, Violin Sonata No 1 in A minor, Op 105 (1851)

Another beautiful, melancholy work by Schumann as A minor was his favorite key. In 1850, Schumann became the music director of the city of Düsseldorf, and at the same time, he was constantly busy composing. The First Violin Sonata was composed in a short period of time, from September 12 to 16, 1851, at the urging of the famous violinist Ferdinand David. The first performance was given by David and Clara Schumann on March 9, 1852.

The piece consists of the following three movements:
1st movement: Passionate expression (Allegro appassionato)
2nd movement Allegretto
3rd movement, lively (Allegro con brio)

Considerable attention is paid to the expressiveness and balance of the two instruments, violin and piano, and the concise writing style is powerful and passionate. There is a point in which the coda of the third movement recalls the first theme of the first movement in order to unify the whole work. 

Leonidas Kavakos (violin) and Daniil Trifonov (piano)

Edvard Grieg, Piano Concerto in A minor, op.16 (1868)

Although the Piano Concerto in A minor is an early work by Grieg (he was 25), it has become one of the best-known works in his oeuvre. The concerto, with obvious influences of folk music from Norway, was premiered in its first version on April 3, 1869 in Copenhagen. When Grieg visited Rome in 1870 to meet Franz Liszt, he had brought the score of the piano concerto with him. Liszt was enthusiastic and described the concerto as Swedish punch. Although this must have sounded strange to Grieg, a champion of Norwegian national romanticism, he wrote to his parents on April 9, 1870 that the meeting with Liszt had had infinite meaning for him.

The piano concerto consists of three movements:

I. Allegro molto moderato (4/4 bar, A minor)
The Allegro molto moderato opens dramatically with short timpani rolls followed by heroic chords from the piano. A small march in minor is played by the wind section. The music develops into a plaintive melody that turns into a lively dance of the piano. The mood turns when a slow melody is played by the cellists. This theme takes over from the piano until it turns into a series of grotesque chords from the piano. The trumpet opens a new march melody, which is taken over by the flute, horn and piano. A repetition of the main theme follows with several variations on it. The cadenza for the piano now emerges. Steadily the orchestra moves in, after which piano and orchestra conclude the movement.

II. Adagio (3/8 bar, Des major).
The short Adagio is introduced by the strings playing a subtle melody. The piano plays serene and tuneful.

III. Allegro moderato molto e marcato (2/4 bar, A minor)
The finale is ushered in by the clarinets and bassoons. The piano playing leads to a Norwegian dance called "Halling." The dance theme is taken over by the orchestra, but the piano detaches itself from it and moves into another dance. A more solemn tempo follows after this. The mood changes when the flute plays an interlude in which Grieg reviews facets of the Norwegian landscape. The mood brightens when the orchestra takes over the flute's theme and ends with a powerful coda.

Julia Fischer with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie conducted by Matthias Pintscher.

Camille Saint-Saëns, Cello Concerto No 1 in A minor Op 33 (1872)

Saint-Saëns wrote his first cello concerto in A minor. This was probably in homage to Robert Schumann who also wrote a cello concerto in A minor (see my discussion of this Schumann concerto the blog article Best Cello Concertos).

Saint-Saëns is known for his traditional approach, for example in not deviating from the standard sonata form, or from the  standard concerto form. However, the 1st cello concerto consists of just one movement. But that Allegro non troppo is more or less an amalgamation of three interwoven movements. Saint-Saëns was most likely influenced here by Franz Liszt, who for example in his two piano conceros also deviated from the standard concerto form. The three sections of which the single movement consists are:

Allegro non troppo: the concerto begins unusually. Instead of the traditional orchestral introduction, the piece begins with one short chord from the orchestra, after which the cello immediately states the main theme. Soon, countermelodies flow from both the orchestra and soloist, at times the two playfully "calling and answering" each other.

Allegretto con moto: the turbulent opening movement leads into a brief but highly original minuet, in which the strings are muted, and which also contains a cello cadenza.

Tempo primo: a restatement of the opening material from the first movement opens the finale. Saint-Saëns introduces two new themes but also includes the recapitulation of the fourth theme from the first movement, tying the whole design together. After a final restatement of the opening theme, he concludes by introducing an entirely new idea for the cello.

Saint-Saëns often uses the solo cello here as a declamatory instrument. This keeps the soloist in the dramatic and musical foreground, the orchestra offering a shimmering backdrop. The music is tremendously demanding for soloists, especially in the fast third section, but this difficulty has not stopped the concerto from becoming a favorite of the great virtuoso cellists.
 

hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Bruno Philippe ∙ Christoph Eschenbach

Mahler, Piano Quartet Movement in A Minor (1876-78)

The Piano Quartet in A minor, of which - apart from sketches for a scherzo - only the first movement has survived, is the only chamber music work by Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) and dates from his time as a student in Vienna.

The autograph was owned by Alma Mahler-Werfel and is now housed in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. There is evidence of a broadcast of a performance on Südwestdeutscher Rundfunk in March 1932, but thereafter the quartet movement fell into oblivion and was not rediscovered until some forty years later by Peter Ruzicka, who arranged for it to be printed by Sikorski Publishers in 1973.

The quartet movement follows sonata form, and bears the performance designation "Not too fast." Peter Ruzicka characterized it as follows: "The conclusion of the sonata movement, sinking into somber A minor, negates any convention of externality that might have been expected from a sixteen-year-old. In general, this key, which played a significant role in Mahler's work (and also in one of the youth symphonies), may well be interpreted as an unconscious anticipation of what is to come (Mahler's Sixth Symphony is also in A minor). The thematic invention acquires a thoroughly personal profile; form and gesture point recognizably to the roots of Mahler's musical consciousness at the time: to Brahms, Schumann and Schubert."

Gustav Mahler Piano Quartet

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Piano Trio in  A minor, op.50 (1882) 

Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio in A minor was composed between 1881 and 1882. It is a memorial tribute to Nikolai Rubinstein, Director of the Moscow Conservatory (brother of the pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein), so the overall tone is mournful and solemn. It is known by the dedication "In Memory of a Great Artist." The Piano trio is a large-scale work in two sections. Despite its nearly 50-minute performance time, it remains popular for its breathtaking lyrical beauty and magnificent, decisive finale.

Although ostensibly composed of two movements, the second movement is so long that its final variation with coda effectively serves as the third and last movement.

I. Pezzo Elegiaco (Moderato assai - Allegro Giusto) (A minor) (approx. 18 minutes)
II. (A) Tema Con Variazoni (E major) - (B) Variazioni Finale e coda) (A major - A minor) ((A) about 15 minutes + (B) about 14 minutes = about 29 minutes)

The dark and passionate first movement, "Elegiac Piece," is structured as a traditional sonata form. It begins with a beautiful romantic melody for solo cello, which eventually returns as a funeral march. The second movement is more classical than romantic in its use of variations and the character of the theme. The pseudo-classical variations suggest a connection to Tchaikovsky's "Variations on a Rococo Theme," but there could also be a link to the musical taste of Nikolai Rubinstein, who was a classicist.

There are eleven variations of the theme, which is introduced by the piano. In the first variation the violin presents the theme. In variation two, Più mosso, the cello sings the theme as the violin provides a countermelody. If you hear what sounds to be a "scherzo" by the piano punctuated by pizzicato's from the strings you’re in the third variation (Allegro moderato). In the fourth variation the theme is played in the minor mode (L'istesso tempo). The fifth variation sounds like a music box – piano in the upper register, with strings providing a drone. The long sixth variation is an elegant waltz, an evocation of Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin. In the short seventh variation (Allegro moderato) we hear heavy piano chords, punctuated by the strings. The eight variation is a Fuga. This is followed by an Andante flebile in the ninth variation, and the tenth variation is a lively Mazurka. In the eleventh variation (Moderato) the theme gradually dies away.

The finale starts out with yet another variation of the theme; festive and jubilant and developed at length (Allegro risoluto e con fuoco). This mood eventually changes abruptly - we are suddenly back again in the memorial music. The melancholy opening theme of the first movement returns heavily, bringing the whole work to a close once more with a solemn funeral march (Lugubre).

ATOS Trio

Johannes Brahms, Double Concerto in A minor op. 102 (1887)

The Double Concerto in A minor for violin, cello, and orchestra by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) is an important contribution to the instrumental genre of the double concerto or sinfonia concertante, which was rarely cultivated in the late Romantic period. Brahms composed this work during his summer vacation at Lake Thun in Switzerland in 1887, the same year it was premiered in Cologne with soloists Joseph Joachim and Robert Hausmann (the concerto was, in part, a gesture of reconciliation from Brahms to Joachim, following a personal and professional fall out).

Brahms' Double Concerto, composed two years after his 4th Symphony, is the composer's last orchestral work. Formally, it is - unlike the four-movement 2nd Piano Concerto - again oriented to the common three-movement concerto form. The scoring with two soloists and orchestra harks back to the double concertos of the Baroque period and the Sinfonia concertante of the Classical period. Mozart had made the not-so-disparate violin and viola soloists in a Sinfonia Concertante, and Beethoven in his Triple Concerto joined piano, violin, and cello. And now here was Brahms’ violin-cello wedding, which was predicated not on the exploitation of the soloistic couple’s contrasting individualities, but on their ability to live happily together if given the advantages of powerful and congenial materials. Indeed, the work stands out in its strong interlocking of the soloist parts with the orchestra. The motivic-thematic material is handled with great economy in a manner typical of the composer.

I. Allegro

The broad, densely worked opening movement starts with a four-bar tutti introduction, followed by a cadenza-like introduction by the two soloists, before the tutti exposition proper follows. The secondary theme intoned by the winds clearly alludes to the beginning of Giovanni Battista Viotti's 22nd Violin Concerto in A minor, a work that both Brahms and Joseph Joachim held in high esteem. The development is dominated by the soloists. In the recapitulation, the secondary theme turns to A major before a terse coda closes the movement back in A minor.

II Andante

This movement is in three parts and begins in D major. Two rising fourths in woodwinds and horns are followed by a chant-like main theme. Both soloists frequently play in parallel octaves. The middle movement in F major feeds off a chorale-like woodwind theme. The repetition of the varied D major section is followed by a coda based on the thematic material of the middle section.

III Vivace non troppo

Here the form of a sonata rondo is used, the sequence corresponds to the scheme A-B-A1-C-A2-B2-A3. The dominant theme is a catchy, restless, dance-like one, which is first intoned by the solo cello. The movement, which begins in A minor, is not without dramatic episodes, and with thirds and sixths that seem "Hungarian" in places, it increasingly changes to a more friendly major character and concludes with a short, effective coda in A major.

Violinist Julia Fischer and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott with the symphony orchestra of the Northwest German Radio, conductor Alan Gilbert.

Ralph Vaughan Williams, Concerto in A minor for Oboe and Strings [1944]
Vaughan Williams (1872 – 1958) was an English composer who worked in a great variety of genres, including film music - his interesting double name without a hyphen is of Welsh origin. Vaughan Williams studied at the Royal College of Music with Stanford and later Parry. Here he also befriended fellow-student Gustav Holst. Vaughan Williams early on became interested in folk song, which he collected. As a central figure in British music he wrote 9 symphonies, several large oratorios, and concerts not only for the piano, but also for rarely used solo instruments as the tuba. His oboe concerto was written for soloist Léon Goossens in 1944. It is a typically English pastoral piece and is divided into three movements: a lightweight first movement, rondo pastorale, then a short minuet and musette, and a scherzo which is the longest and weightiest movement, although it ends on a wistful note. The material for the Oboe Concerto derives from some of the same ideas that generated Vaughan Williams' magisterial Fifth Symphony, completed the year before, but here the tone becomes much more inward and intimate. Oboe and orchestra never argue, always genially supporting each other. The entire concerto is suffused with a gentle melancholy - befitting the key of A minor. But don't be fooled by the easy character of this concerto: extreme virtuosity, agility and endurance are required of the soloist and the accompanying string orchestra.
(The above note on Vaughan Williams's Oboe Concerto is based on my blog article Best Works for Oboe)

Listen to: Takuya Takashima, oboe, with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Stockhammer

[With thanks to relevant public domain articles in either the German, Japanese, Dutch or English Wikipedia]

Haiku Travels (35): Basho and Asakusa

Haiku Travels

Asakusa (Tokyo)

clouds of blossoms...

is that temple bell

Ueno or Asakusa?

hana no kumo  / kane wa Ueno ka / Asakusa ka?

花の雲鐘は上野か浅草か

Basho

[Temple Bell of Sensoji Temple, Asakusa]

In the Edo-period, temple bells such as the one on the Benten Hill of Sensoji in Asakusa, played an important role in informing the townspeople of the time of day. Those bells were therefore called 'toki no kane,' or Bells of Time. The present bell dates from 1692, when it was cast at the orders of the shogun Tsunayoshi. The bell is more than 2 meters high and measures one and half meter in diameter.

Basho lived in Fukagawa, on the other bank of the River Sumida. In those times, although Fukagawa was in the rural outskirts of the city, as there were no high buildings, he could probably see the roof of the great Kannon temple from his home. Not far from Asakusa was another temple complex, Kaneiji, in what is now Ueno Park. Kaneiji also possessed a Bell of Time, now standing in a forlorn corner of the park.

Basho could hear both temple bells. Sitting on the verandah of his hermitage (the poem has the head note "At my grassy hut"), among the blossoms of spring, he heard the boom of a bell... and wondered: was it the one of Kaneiji in Ueno or of the Kannon temple in Asakusa?

Basho was so visually drunk with the rioting blossoms that even his sense of direction became confused... 

[Kannon's tiled roof - Main hall of Sensoji, Asakusa]

Sensoji is very rich in haiku stones - so much that there is even one more haiku by Basho about blossom clouds of blooming cherries.

It is a sort of sequel to the previous "blossom clouds" haiku, where Basho was only listening, drunk with blossoms. Now he is looking and there, above the clouds of cherry blossoms, he sees the impressive tiled roof of the great Kannon Temple in Asakusa, Sensoji...

the tiled roof of the Kannon Temple
is seen far away
in the blossom clouds

Kannon no | iraka miyaritsu | hana no kumo 

Location: The haiku has been reproduced on a wooden board near the bell tower on Benten-yama, in the grounds of Sensoji in Asakusa, Tokyo. Sensoji can be reached by either the Ginza or Asakusa subway line; the temple grounds start at the famous Onarimon, only a few minutes from the exits of both subway stations. When approaching the temple, after walking through the shop-lined Nakamise-dori Street leading from the Onarimon to the temple, one reaches the huge Hozo-mon, or Treasury Gate. Benten-yama (where the haiku stone with the second haiku stands) is a small hill at the back of grounds to the right of this gate and is crowned by a temple hall dedicated to Benten, the Goddess of Music. Admission free.

Translations and Studies of Basho
Basho's Haiku, 2 vols,  by Toshiharu Oseko (1990 & 1996, Maruzen): Basho and his Interpreters, Selected Hokku with Commentary, by Makoto Ueda (1992, Stanford U.P.); Traces of Dreams, Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Basho, by Haruo Shirane (1998, Stanford U.P.); Basho's Narrow Road, by Hiroaki Sato (1996, Stone Bridge Press); Basho's Journey, The Literary Prose of Matsuo Basho, by David Landis Bamhill (2005, State University of New York); Basho Yamatoji by Daiyasu Takashi considers Basho's travels in the Nara area and the haiku he wrote there (Izumi Shobo, 1994)

[The photos in this post are my own work]

Index Haiku Travels

Matsudaira Yoritsune (Japanese Music)

Matsudaira Yoritsune (松平 頼則, 1907-2001) was descended, on his father's side, from the Matsudaira clan, related to the Tokugawa clan who ruled Japan as Shogun during the Edo period, and on his mother's side from the Fujiwara clan, who were court regents from the 7th to the 12th centuries.

Matsudaira studied French literature at Keio University in Tokyo. He later studied composition privately with Komatsu Kosuke and piano with Emile Gil-Marchex. As a pianist, he made his debut in 1931. He developed into one of the most important Japanese composers of the 20th century.

Starting out with a Neoclassical style based on Nanbu folk songs, he encountered Gagaku (ancient Japanese court music), and afterwards reached his own unique style that combines Gagaku and Western avant-garde music. Although he was already nearly 50 years old when he shifted to an avant-garde style, his style continued to evolve, adopting one after another such techniques as the twelve-tone technique, serialism, and aleatoric music. He is internationally acclaimed for his influence on Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Boulez, and holds the record for the most ISCM selections by a Japanese artist.

In the 1930s, before WWII, Matsudaira was attracted to anti-romanticism and French style Neoclassicism, as was to be expected from the French orientation of his thinking. His idols were Ravel, Poulenc, Milhaud and Tansman, the last a Polish composer living in Paris. He tried to combine their styles with Japanese traditional music, although he was extremely selective in his use of Japanese styles. One of his first choices was folk-songs sung in the Nanbu district, the north-eastern part of Honshu. Most of these songs are peaceful and calm. Using melodic material from them, he created artificial "paradise-like" music, lacking any element of earthiness, in a Neoclassical, bitonal style. The orchestral piece Pastoral written in this style won second prize in the 1935 Tcherepnin Competition, which was held in Paris by the Russian composer Alexander Tcherepnin, who had spent long periods in Shanghai and in Tokyo, with a view to introducing Japanese works to the world. Among the jury were big names like Roussel, Ibert, Honegger and Tansman.

Another orchestral piece making use of Nanbu folk songs is Theme and Variations on a Nanbu Folk Song for Piano and Orchestra (1939), which won an award in the 1939 Weingartner Competition, which was held by the conductor Felix Weingartner, then in Japan, with the same purpose as Tcherepnin’s award. The influence of the music of the French Impressionists can be clearly heard here. The harmonic writing is based on the augmented fourth to create a sense of harmonic ambiguity and colorful dissonance effects.

[Note: in Yogaku, Japanese Music of the Twentieth Century, p. 84, Luciana Galliano has mistranslated the title of this piece as "Theme and variations of folk songs from the south." But "Nanbu" does not refer to "southern Japan," as it is the name for the Nanbu domain which was located in what is now Iwate prefecture (plus parts of Akita and Aomori prefectures) - which is in Tohoku, north-eastern Japan and not in the south! "Nanbu minyo" are quite famous and can be found in many CD collections of Japanese folk songs]

Tcherepnin also sponsored the publication of Matsudaira’s piano and chamber pieces, along with works by other Japanese composers of his generation, including Kiyose Yasuji and Ifukube Akira. These were published by G. Schirmer and Universal Edition, and Matsudaira was widely recognized as one of the leading Japanese composers of the new generation. During this period, he studied with Tcherepnin in Tokyo and was inspired by his idol Tansman, who visited Japan at this time.

During World War II, Matsudaira was largely silent. The trend of the times required patriotic pieces, but he had no intention of writing such music. He shut himself away and devoted most of his time to delve into dodecaphony and atonality. This period also marked the shift of his interest from the Nanbu folk songs to Gagaku. Combining this with dodecaphony and atonality, he found his own guiding style in what has been called "Serial Gagaku." However, as Luciana Galliano emphasizes, Gagaku was a way toward discovering Matsudaira's own personal, Japanese style of expression - he was not interested in Gagaku out of nationalism or patriotism. While other nationalist composers rejected European compositional techniques, Matsudaira never abandoned his allegiance to European music and techniques.

Matsudaira’s stylistic periods are roughly divided into two with the division somewhere in the middle of the 1950s. The first period saw the combination of folk song and Gagaku with French Neoclassicism, and the second period witnessed the integration of Gagaku and post-war avant-garde methods.

The piece that initiated a new and creative period for Matsudaira was Tema e variazioni sul tema di Etenraku per pianoforte e orchestra (1951). "Etenraku" (越天楽) is a Gagaku melody and dance, which was popular in the Heian period - and in our times still used at wedding ceremonies. It is usually played with a hichiriki or ryuteki flute, and is accompanied by other traditional instruments such as the sho (bamboo mouth organ) and koto. However, Matsudaira didn't use the well-known Hyojo mode of Etenraku, but opted for the older and lesser known Banshikicho mode. The piece was first performed at the ISCM Festival in Salzburg in 1952 and subsequently also by Herbert von Karajan with as piano soloist Yvonne Loriod. The first of the set of six variations recalls the world of Gagaku, as Luciana Galliano writes: "The violins play the harsh ethereal chords of the sho, the flute and oboe play ryuteki and hichiriki melodies; the keyboards (piano, celesta and cembalo) and the remaining string instruments (lowers strings and harp) play biwa and koto ostinato phrases that reaffirm the modal structure of the music." The third variation employs the twelve-tone technique, and the fifth variation uses jazz and Boogie-woogie rhythms. In later compositions, Matsudaira would further refine these techniques.

Matsudaira's works were particularly successful in Europe. At the 1954 festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), his Metamorphoses d'apres Saibara for soprano and chamber orchestra was awarded the first prize.

Dissonant sound accumulation techniques, modes from Gagaku music and serial procedures soon entered into a symbiotic connection in his fine ensemble and orchestral works. His mastery of dodecaphonic technique can be seen in Figures sonores (1956), which was performed by Pierre Boulez in Paris.

During this period, Matsudaira developed a compositional technique in which the twelve-tone technique is extended to all pieces, and the tones of Gagaku are reanalyzed using the twelve-tone technique. Important works from the late 1950s are U-Mai (right dance) (1957), Sa-Mai (left dance) (1958) and Danza rituale e finale, Enbou and Chogeishi (1959), in which Matsudaira adopts a strict serial technique that he applies not only to the pitches but also to dynamics and to a certain extant to the rhythmic structure. Apparently written separately, together the four works can be played as a Bugaku or Dance Suite. In that case the performers have to start with the short Enbou of the Ritual Dances, next play the more substantial Sa-Mai (Left Dance) in five sections, then the U-Mai (Right Dance) in three sections, and end with the Chogeishi of Ritual Dances. The instrumentation varies somewhat between the works but is essentially based around woodwinds and percussion.

We will discuss these pieces separately here:
U-mai: first performed under conductor Ernest Bour in Darmstadt on 11th September 1958. U-Mai is based on the dance music Nasori and is scored for nine wind instruments, various kinds of percussion, harp, piano and string quartet. Nasori is said to be derived from ancient Chinese court music, depicting a couple of male and female dragons playing. This piece consists of three parts: Jo (Introduction), Ha (Development) and Kyu (Finale).

Sa-Mai: after winning a prize at the ISCM festival, the work was first performed in Rome on 15th June, 1959, by Michael Gielen and the Naples Radio Chamber Orchestra. Sa-Mai is based on the dance music Genjo-Raku and is scored for ten wind instruments including saxophone, a variety of percussion, celesta, harp, piano and fourteen strings (which mainly imitate the sho chords). Genjo-Raku is said to have originated in ancient China, depicting barbarians from the west.

Ritual Dances (Enbou and Chogeishi): written in Tokyo in 1959 to a commission from NHK and first given on 28th November of the same year by Iwaki Hiroyuki and the NHK Symphony. Enbou is a piece used in Gagaku to purify the stage; it is accompanied by two yokobue flutes and percussion, and it is thoroughly improvisational in mood - to express this, Matsudaira employs aleatoric methods, following Stockhausen and Boulez. The original Chogeishi is a noble piece composed by Minamaoto Hiromasa, a nobleman of the tenth century. The audience leave the hall while it is being played. It is scored for an irregular two-wind-based orchestra, including soprano and alto saxophones. The music is richer in timbre and more flexible in rhythm and tempo than Sa-Mai and U-Mai.

(Description of Sa-mai, U-mai and Ritual Dances based on the excellent Naxos CD liner notes by Katayama Morihide).

Long before the music of John Cage became known in Japan, Matsudaira worked with variable, open formats and free-aleatory possibilities, as we saw in his Ritual Dances. Somakusha per flauto solo (1961) was another experiment with aleatoric technique. The piece, of which the title refers to Gagaku music, is regarded as a classic work for solo flute, and is still being performed by various virtuosos. The music is so flexible that it can be completely changed depending on the individuality of the flutist.

In Bugaku per orchestra da camera (1962) Matsudaira rigorously adopted the post-Webern serial technique of applying serial permutations to all parameters. It won first prize at the competition run by the Italian section of ISCM. This work is based on the well-known Gagaku piece "Ranryo O" in which the handsome Prince of Lanling, when challenged to do battle, covers his graceful face under a fierce dragon mask, and wins a great victory. The work is very similar to "Sa-mai", except for the style of playing : in "Bugaku", players may play their own part freely selecting one from among a group of melodies.

Matsudaira, who always followed overseas trends in real time even after his 50th birthday, was highly acclaimed in Europe, where he was praised by Pierre Boulez, Goffredo Petrassi, and Witold Lutoslawski.

It is difficult to give a concise overview of Matsudaira's works from the 1960s on - there is just too much and every work is again different. Moreover, it is difficult to find recordings of Matsudaira's music from these years. In fact, Matsudaira continued composing until shortly before his death in 2001, although not all his music was published. In contrast to Takemitsu Toru, who became more mellow and tonal in his later works, Matsudaira kept to his avant-garde techniques, with as only change that his music became structurally freer. Just to mention some highlights:

Orchestral music:
- Three piano concertos, from 1964, 1979-80 and 2001.
- Concerto da camera per clavicembalo, arpa e strumenti (1964)
- Mouvements circulatoires (1971)
- Portrait C per orchestra da camera (1977)
 
Chamber and instrumental music:
- Sonatas and sonatines for violin, cello, flute. A piano trio.
- Two string quartets.
- Portrait B per due pianoforti e due percussionisti (1969)
- Concert, for gagaku ensemble (1975)
- Piano music as Le beau Japon pour piano (1970) and Tema e variazioni sul tema di Etenraku per pianoforte (1983). The first work, known for its broadcast premiere performed by Inoue Futaba, depicts various forms from Japanese folk songs to Gagaku in a solo piano setting, and has been called one of the greatest works in the history of Japanese piano music.

Opera:
- Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji, 1990–93), for the soprano Nara Yumi.
- Uji jujo (The Ten Chapters of Uji, the final part of the Genji, 1998)

Vocal:
- 3 arias from the opera "Genji-Monogatari", for soprano, sho, flute and koto (1990)
- Kyrie, for soloists, mixed choir and orchestra (1991)


From 1953 Matsudaira first was secretary, and from 1956 to 1960 president of the Japanese section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM).

He fostered the development of many younger composers, including his own son,
Matsudaira Yoriaki.

It is not easy to find music by Matsudaira Yoritsune. The best option is the Naxos CD played by the Century Orchestra Osaka directed by Takasaki Ken and with pianist Nodaira Ichiro, which contains the Theme and Variations for Piano and Orchestra as well as Sa-Mai, U-mai and Danza Rituale e Finale.

See on Japanese music: Yogaku, Japanese Music in the Twentieth Century by Luciana Galliano.


Japanese Music: Akutagawa Yasushi - Hayasaka Fumio - Ifukube Akira - Matsudaira Yoritsune - Mayazumi Toshiro - Miyoshi Akira - Moroi Saburo - Takemitsu Toru - Yamada Kosaku - Yashiro Akio

Classical Music

Best Piano Concertos from the Twentieth Century: Part Three (1951-2018)

In this installment: British concertos by Rawsthorne, Alwyn and Arnold, Japanese music by Takemitsu, Yashiro and Ifukube, avant-garde concertos by Ligeti and Penderecki, exotic concertos by Harrison and Rautavaara, and American minimal music by Adams and Glass (and much else).

1. Alan Rawsthorne, Piano Concerto No 2 (1951, Britain)
Alan Rawsthorne (1905-1971) originally studied to be a dentist and an architect. Only when he turned 20 did he switch to music; he went on to study at the Royal Manchester College of Music, first cello and piano. When he finished that in 1930, he continued studying piano in Berlin, with Egon Petri. His first breakthrough as a composer came with Theme and Variations for Two Violins in 1938, followed by Symphonic Studies in 1939. After World War II he devoted himself entirely to composition. His oeuvre is not very large, but it is diverse.

Alan Rawsthorne's three piano concertos (one of them for two pianos) are full of energy, and they are inventively scored. There is a scherzo-like quality to Rawsthorne's piano writing: he loves fast passage work, spiced by well-judged orchestral interventions and comments, and the effect is a little bit like Prokofiev in its energy, without being as motoric and driven. These characteristics can be found in the first two movements of the Second Concerto (1951), but the third movement is more genuinely lyrical, supported by some really lovely woodwind writing. In the finale the orchestra and the piano face off against each other in an often comical way.

[Performance listened to: Geoffrey Tozer and the London Philharmonic conducted by Matthias Bamert on Chandos]


2. George Dyson, Concierto Leggiero for Piano and String Orchestra (1951, Britain)
George Dyson (1883-1964) studied at the Royal College of Music with Stanford and was active as teacher, broadcaster and author, besides being an important composer in his own right. Dyson wrote lyrical, romantic music that was masterfully scored, and always displays great beauty of sound. In fact, he was a lyricist like Delius. The Concerto leggiero for piano and strings comes from the last phase of his activity as composer. "Leggiero" doesn't mean "light" in the sense of popular music, but rather "without pomp." In accordance with this title, it has an engaging lightness of touch and a great delicacy of texture. The slow movement is elegiac and the finale retains the work's nostalgia. Dyson may have had Mozart in mind as example. It is a splendid piece of music, Dyson's only venture in the piano concerto genre.

[Performance listened to: Eric Parkin and City of London Sinfonia conducted by Richard Hickox on Chandos]


3. Malcolm Arnold, Concerto for Piano Duet and Strings Op 32 (1951, Britain)
Malcolm Arnold (1921–2006) wrote music in many genres, including a cycle of nine symphonies, numerous concertos, concert works, chamber music, choral music and music for brass band. His style is tonal and rejoices in lively rhythms, brilliant orchestration, and an unabashed tunefulness (which in the radically avant-garde atmosphere of the 1950s and 1960s was held against him). He wrote extensively for the theater, with five ballets specially commissioned by the Royal Ballet, as well as two operas and a musical. He also produced scores for more than a hundred films, among these The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), for which he won an Oscar.

The Concerto for Piano Duet and Strings is one of Malcolm Arnold’s finest concertos, full of technical display, melody, contrast and color. The work brings busy and brilliant passagework for the soloists in the first movement, a still and intense passacaglia slow movement and a relentlessly high-spirited finale that zips along.

[Performance listened to: Philip Dyson and Kevin Sargent and Ulster Orchestra conducted by Esa Heikkila on Naxos]


4. Boris Blacher, Piano Concerto No 2 "in variable meters" (1952, Germany)
The German composer Boris Blacher (1903-1975) was born in an expatriate community in China. In 1922 he went to Berlin where he began to study architecture and mathematics; two years later, he turned to music and studied composition. The Nazis accused him of writing degenerate music (a badge of honor!) and he lost his teaching post at the Dresden Conservatory. His career resumed after 1945, and he later became president of the Academy of Arts, Berlin, and is today regarded as one of the most influential music figures of his time.

With the exception of church music, Blacher was active in all known genres. He always strove to arrange his next work musically differently, to avoid repetition. His musical language is characterized by sparseness of means of expression, clear structures and stiff rhythms.

In the late 1940s, Blacher developed a procedure he called "variable metrics," which he used in his works to break the musical symmetry with many, partially mathematically constructed measure changes. Blacher has stated that rhythm and form are in much closer relationship than previously assumed. One of the first works in which Blacher used this procedure was the Second Piano Concerto. The outline of the Andante, with which the Second Piano Concerto begins is (the numbers indicate the number of eighths per measure): 12-8-12-8-7-12-8-7-6-12-8-7-6-5, etc, until one finally comes out on 12-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1. The Allegro that follows has the ratio reversed: 2-3-2-3-4, etc.

[Performance listened to: Horst Gobel and Philharmonie Pamarska conducted by Takao Ukigaya on Thorofon]


5. Bohuslav Martinů, Concerto No 4 "Incantation" (1956, Czech/U.S.)
Martinů’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 4, ‘Incantation‘, was completed in early 1956. It had its premiere in New York City on 4 October of that year with the pianist Rudolf Firkušný, and Leopold Stokowski conducting The Symphony of the Air. In 1953, Martinů had left the United States (where he had found refuge as artist émigré from 1941 to 1953) for France and settled in Nice; in 1956, he took up an appointment as composer-in-residence at the American Academy in Rome and that was the period in which he composed his fourth piano concerto. It has been said that in the compositions of Martinů's last years we find the composer attempting through his music "a vicarious homecoming,^" although he never was able to return to Czechoslovakia (then under Communist rule).

Bohuslav Martinu's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 4 has several special features: the work stands apart from Martinu's other concertante works by consisting of only two movements, by its title "Incantations", and by its free form and highly exalted mood, full of fantastic shimmering timbres and eruptive moments.

The high tension first movement is a Poco Allegro, a toccata-like play with sonorities and effects. A short motive is played by piccolo, xylophone, and harp over a string tremolo. This motive is the core of the entire piece and is used throughout. When the horns present the motive on the woodwind tremolo, the clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, and cello reveal the theme. After the theme settles down, the solo piano plays the motive. The surprising ending in a swirl of pianistic noise comes not with a bang, but with a whimper. Then follows the Poco moderato second movement. The piano and the orchestra clash vehemently in a dark and dramatic atmosphere. High drama is maintained throughout, with captivating coloristic effects. After ascending tones in the woodwind and harp, an oriental motive appears on the oboe. Gradually, the solo piano takes an active part, followed by the strings and woodwind, and the movement moves into a cadenza. Martinů has been recorded as saying that the piece is an “expression of the never-ending search for truth and the meaning of life, as well as an homage to music, the musician’s reclusion, his powers and his arms.”  

[Performance listened to: Rudolf Firkušný with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Libor Pesek on RCA Victor]


6. Nino Rota, Piano Concerto in C (1960, Italy)
Nino Rota's Piano Concerto in C was dedicated to Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and is a glittering showpiece that reminds one of Rota's music for Fellini's films. A beguiling tune of Mozartean simplicity and grace begins the first movement, which is in a decidedly Neoclassical vein, with echoes of the Stravinskyan wit in Pulcinella. This is true commedia dell'arte! The second movement, Arietta con variazioni, does feature a haunting English horn solo that winds through some very Italianate contours, but the finale is clearly in the style of Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony, with a theme that winks at the listener while the piano flies along. The concerto is exceptionally well crafted, the melodies are attractive, and the piano writing is brilliant. As Rota stated, his intention was to bring a little bit of nostalgia and a lot of good humor and optimism and he has well succeeded in doing that.

Nino Rota (1911 – 1979) is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti - he wrote more than 150 scores for Italian and international productions from the 1930s until his death in 1979. Alongside this great body of film work, he composed ten operas, five ballets and dozens of other orchestral, choral and chamber works, among which three piano concertos (besides the present one, the Concerto-Soiree and the Concerto in E minor).

Listen to: Vikingur Olafsson - piano with the Dala Sinfonietta, Tobias Ringborg - conductor:




7. William Alwyn, Piano Concerto No 2 (1960, Britain)
William Alwyn (1905 – 1985) wrote absolute music in a late romantic, technically virtuosic style and much film music. Alwyn's music is tonal and ambitious. His second wife, Doreen Carwithen (1922-2003), who called herself Mary Alwyn, was also a composer and served as Alwyn's assistant since their marriage in 1961. Since Alwyn's death, she was involved with the William Alwyn Archive and was, among other things, the driving force behind the complete recording of Alwyn's orchestral music on the English CD label Chandos. She also arranged Alwyn's second piano concerto for performance. This concerto, written for the "Henry Wood Promenade Concerts" in 1960 had never been played because Dutch pianist Cor de Groot for whom it had been written, lost control of his left hand just before the premiere due to a muscle disorder. The premiere, scheduled for the 1960 summer Proms, was canceled and Alwyn put the unplayed concerto away in a drawer.

Alwyn had written a strong, brilliant concerto in the traditional mold, pitting soloist against orchestra and giving the pianist every chance to show his outstanding skills. He moves decisively away from the Romantic idiom of the four symphonies he had written during the previous ten years. Instead, we find driving rhythms and more use of chromaticism, plus uncharacteristic yet entirely assured use of jazz rhythms and blues harmonies. There are surging climaxes (they sound a little like the Ravel Left-Hand Concerto at times) and an angry, fighting mood in the finale. The slow movement, which Alwyn had ripped out and thrown away, because he thought it didn't fit after all, was newly composed by Carwithen. That new slow movement is simple, peaceful, and calming.

[Performance listened to: Howard Shelley, piano, with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Richard Hickox on Chandos]


8. Alberto Ginastera, Piano Concerto No 1 Op 28 (1961, Argentina)
Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) is considered as one of the most important 20th-century classical composers of the Americas. Ginastera grouped his music into three periods: "Objective Nationalism" (1934–1948), "Subjective Nationalism" (1948–1958), and "Neo-Expressionism" (1958–1983). These periods vary in their use of traditional Argentine musical elements. His Objective Nationalistic works often integrate Argentine folk themes in a straightforward fashion, while works in the later periods incorporate traditional elements in increasingly abstracted forms. The Piano Concerto No 1 belongs to the third period. Besides twelve-tone music, we also hear some influence from Bela Bartok.

Beginning with a Cadenza e varianti, this four-part composition employs elements from the Classical-Romantic tradition as well as from twelve-note techniques. Following a sharp crescendo of orchestral chords consisting of a twelve-tone sequence, the piano enters with an octave technique reminiscent of Franz Liszt, presenting a twelve-tone sequence, on which the first movement further builds.

A wide range of timbres predominates in the second movement, the Scherzo allucinante. The composer himself describes it as "very quickly, played through at pianissimo volume." The movement exudes a supernatural atmosphere.

The third movement (Adagissimo) opens with a spine-chilling viola solo, to which the orchestra responds with tutti. The passion and pathos increase when the piano enters. In the middle of the movement, there is a quotation from the second movement of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4.

The fourth movement (Toccata concertata) is a true bravura piece in seven part Rondo form. Here, the twelve-tone sequence is set aside and lively musical ideas are developed. The piano and the orchestration with percussion violently switch places, and the coda ends with the piano striking a dissonant note against the orchestration as the forte four (fffff) builds even more heat.

This concerto has been called a work of brutalist magical realism, with unusual evocations of eerie rain-forest weirdness and great thundering percussive romps.

Listen to: Jorge Federico Osorio with The Orquesta Filarmónica de la UNAM:




9. Akira Ifukube, Ritmica Ostinata for Piano and Orchestra (1961, Japan)
Ifukube Akira (1914-2006) is perhaps best known among the general public for his film scores for the Godzilla movies. Ifukube was a nationalistic composer who rejected the Western symphonic tradition with sonata form and tried to find his own "Japanese voice." In this work there is - as the title indicates - an extensive use of ostinati (short motives repeated over and over again), a technique that characterizes all Ifukube's work. Ifukube used a scale that was basically pentatonic, to which he would add one or two notes not used by the melody. To create a harmonic texture he would often use double musical lines, simple counterpoint or canonic sections. The concerto also uses meters of five and seven beats, reflecting literary tradition as in haiku and waka, where lines have either 5 or 7 syllables. The solo part is treated non-pianistically, almost like a Japanese koto or biwa. The work is in Rondo form, with an Allegro framing slower sections.

Read more about the music of Ifukube Akira in my blog article in the series "Japanese Music."

[Performance listened to: Kobayashi Hitoshi, piano, with Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra conducted by Wakasugi Hiroshi on Victor]


10. Samuel Barber, Piano Concerto Op 38 (1962, U.S.)
The Piano Concerto by Samuel Barber was commissioned by the music publishing company G. Schirmer in honor of the centenary of their founding. The premiere was on September 24, 1962, with John Browning as soloist and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Erich Leinsdorf. The work was met with great critical acclaim with Barber winning his second Pulitzer Prize in 1963 and the Music Critics Circle Award in 1964.

The first movement (Allegro appassionato) opens with a piano declamation of one of the major themes, and then moves into a furious tutti section. This opening section contains the expression of the movement's chief melodies. Through inversion, retrograde, and counterpoint variations of these melodies (which will appear in later movements), Barber spins out the entire movement, which starts and ends in E minor. The second movement (Canzone), predominantly in C-sharp minor, is based on one sweet but sad melody and is far more subdued than the first movement. This movement was transcribed and expanded from an Elegy for flute and piano, composed in 1959. The third movement (Allegro molto), mostly in B-flat minor, is in a furiously fast 5/8 time, with a pounding ostinato. It makes heavy use of the brass instruments, and is driven by the recapitulation of a brief motivic theme, giving the movement a modified rondo form.

Listen to: Dolpiti Kongviwatanakul with Boston Conservatory Orchestra




11. Akio Yashiro, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1967)
Akio Yashiro (1929 - 1976) was a post-war Japanese composer who had studied for five years at the Paris Conservatory in the 1950s. His style is very French, and could be located somewhere between Ravel and Dutilleux. Unfortunately he died at age 46 when he was just at the height of his powers.

This concerto consists of three movements. While writing the work the composer kept in mind the adage "What a pianist has are not two hands, but ten fingers" - so he wrote a highly demanding piano part throughout the concerto.

The first movement, allegro animato, composed between 1964 and the summer of 1966, is written in expanded sonata form with the first subject displayed by the solo piano at the beginning of the movement and the second subject distinguished by a prominent flute part. Several cadenzas of coloratura style, which Liszt also loved in his compositions, are inserted in the music. In contrast to the longer exposition compared to general sonata movements, the recapitulation is placed within, rather than after, the development.

Throughout the second movement, adagio misterioso, composed together with the third movement between 1966 and May 1967, the note C is played in ostinato rhythm, which the composer explained as a "recollection of a dream of my younger days."

The third movement, a rondo, progresses as allegro - andante - vivace molto capriccioso. The music, recalling the melody of the first movement, varies rapidly until the end of the concerto.

[Performance listened to: Izumi Tateno, piano, with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra directed by Kohtaro Satoh on Fontec]


12. Toru Takemitsu, Riverrun for piano and orchestra (1984, Japan)
Toru Takemitsu was greatly influenced by James Joyce and used several of the writer's phrases for his titles, as here from Finnagan's Wake.

The piece was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and given its first performance with Peter Serkin. “The music flows in the form of a musical tributary derived from a certain main current, wending its way through the scenery of night towards the sea of tonality,” Takemitsu wrote. “The motif, and the intervals of a major seventh and a minor third, almost like simple symbols, gradually disperse and always give birth to a variety of melodic sub-species. While they sometimes do confront one another, they do not necessarily represent a dialectic development, but continually keep occurring, disappearing and recurring.”

For more music by Takemitsu Toru, arguably Japan's greatest composer, see my blog article in the series "Japanese Music."

Listen to: Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, Timothy Hoft-soloist and Taras Krysa, conductor:




13. Frank Martin, Piano Concerto (1968/69, Switzerland/Holland)
Frank Martin was a Swiss composer (1890-1974) who lived for many decades in The Netherlands. Frank Martin's music can be described as moderately modern, with a strong emphasis on rhythm. Harmonically, much of his work is characterized by a "sliding tonality," where the music moves from one key to another. Atonality he resolutely rejected, but otherwise he had an open mind that made eager use of all the new developments that 20th-century music had to offer. Through unusual combinations of instruments, he often obtained unusual timbres. He also managed to incorporate Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique into his style in a very personal way, without abandoning tonality.

The Piano Concerto is a truly big concerto composed at his request for the Austrian pianist Paul Badura-Skoda, who premiered it on 27 June 1970 with the Hague Residentie Orchestra under Jerzy Semkow as part of the Holland Festival.

The Con moto first movement is characterized by its hard-driving energy. The muscular piano part is dominant throughout. The mood darkens in the passacaglia-like Lento, an intensely elegiac moment. The inexhaustible energy of the first movement returns in the bright and jaunty Finale Presto. A spectacular concerto.

[Performance listened to: Paul Badura-Skoda, piano, with the Orchestra Symphonique de la Radio Luxembourg conducted by Frank Martin on Jecklin Disco]


14. Einojuhani Rautavaara, Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 45 (1969)
Rautavaara (1928-2016) was among the most significant Finnish composers after Sibelius. His style evolved gradually, moving from 12-tone serial modernism into Neo-Romanticism.

The First Piano Concerto contains many innovative uses of polytonality, cluster chords and extended uses of form. It was during this time that Rautavaara had become disenchanted with the serialist and twelve-tone techniques of his previous works, and abandoned them in favor of a more idiosyncratic, romantic, and avant-garde style.

The concerto is in three movements. The first movement, Con grandezza, opens with an eruption of raw, primal energy amid striking clusters of sound. For the first thirteen bars, there are octave clusters in the right hand. The orchestra joins abruptly, imitating the piano intro. The piano and orchestra bounce themes off of each other, before a large climax, where the pianist is instructed to slam her arm on the keyboard to simulate a 3-octave wide cluster chord. The second movement (Andante) is a quietly haunting chorale that starts with a C drone in the strings, and ends with more tone clusters that lead into the beginning of the next movement. The third movement (Molto vivace) provides a strong climax with themes from the first movement, and a short French horn solo.

Listen to: Scarlett Tong Zuo, Piano - Toshiyuki Shimada, Conductor - Yale Symphony Orchestra:




15. Lou Harrison, Piano Concerto (1983-85, U.S.)
Lou Harrison was the quintessential West Coast composer. Born in Portland, Oregon, Harrison grew up in northern California, studied with Henry Cowell in San Francisco, studied with Arnold Schoenberg at UCLA, and had a life-long fascination with Asian music (such as the Indonesian Gamelan), among many other musical and cultural interests that connect him to the Pacific Rim.

Harrison was the first major composer in the Western world to seriously incorporate alternate tuning systems into his music, composing pieces in a variety of just-intonation systems and bringing back long-forgotten temperaments, as he did in his Piano Concerto (written for the jazz pianist Keith Jarrett), in which he calls for the solo piano to be tuned in an archaic mode that is subtly different from our normal equal-tempered scale. The orchestra also participates in this tuning. The result is a piquant sound, fresh but not jarringly “wrong.”

There are four movements: Allegro - Stampede - Largo - Allegro moderato. The opening Allegro is a classically structured movement of thematic exposition, development, and tonally rounded recapitulation. It includes several big piano solos. The Stampede is a non-stop chase. In contrast, the quiet slow movement is a calm reverie. The finale is another perpetual motion romp, but much lighter in sound as Harrison gives it over almost entirely to the piano and light percussion (bongo and glockenspiel).

[Performance listened to: Keith Jarrett, piano, with the New Japan Philharmonic conducted by Naoto Otomo on New World records]


16. György Ligeti, Piano Concerto (1985-88, Hungary/Austria)
Ligeti (1923-2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer. Born in Romania, he settled as a composer in Hungary, but fled from there to Austria after the 1956 Hungarian Uprising. Ligeti was one of the leading figures of the European avant-garde. As a result of his study of serial music, he developed the so-called "sound surface composition" and "micropolyphony," a compositional technique that consists in creating dense, microtonal sound textures.

Initial sketches of the Concerto began in 1980, but it was not until 1985 that he found a way forward and the work proceeded more quickly. The first three movements were premiered in Graz, Austria on October 23, 1986 by pianist Anthony di Bonaventura and the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Mario di Bonaventura. The following year, Ligeti added another two movements, the fourth and fifth, and the final autograph of the last movement was ready in January 1988. Ligeti wrote that “after hearing the work twice, I came to the conclusion that the third movement was not an adequate finale; my feeling of form demanded continuation, a supplement.”

At the time of its composition, Ligeti was working on his first book of piano etudes, and the superimposed African rhythms, shifting accents, and changing tempos so characteristic of those pieces can be heard in the concerto as well.

The first movement is similar to the polymetric concept used in Ligeti's first etude, Désordre. It is very rhythmically complex throughout. The second movement, the only slow movement of the piece, begins without pause. It uses the lamento motif from the last movement of Ligeti's Horn Trio and his sixth piano etude, Automne à Varsovie. This motif also forms the basis of the third movement, another fast movement. According to Ligeti himself, the fourth movement, more fragmentary than the surrounding movements, is inspired by computer-generated images of fractals (like the Mandelbrot set). The fifth movement, similar to the first, uses three related time signatures simultaneously.

Listen to: Imri Talgam, piano, with the Israeli Contemporary Players, Zsolt Nagy, conductor:




17. Lowell Liebermann, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No 2 Op 36 (1992, U.S.)
Lowell Liebermann was born in 1961 in New York City, where he still resides. His music combines elements of traditional tonality and structure with more adventurous harmonies. Liebermann's music is often highly polytonal and Liebermann explores different bitonal possibilities in many of his pieces.  Stephen Hough's interpretation of the 2nd Piano Concerto under Liebermann's direction was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition in 1998.

The Second Concerto is one of the major and most representative works of Liebermann. A twelve tone row is used both melodically and harmonically (and also in its inverted form in the 2nd movement). Liebermann bases a set of Variations on it in the first movement. The 3rd movement is a Passacaglia using the tone row. The fourth is fast and has a terrific ending culminating in a double octave rising piano passage of great excitement accompanied by blaring trombones. This is a Romantic, virtuoso concerto in the style of Rachmaninov, Dohnanyi and Howard Hanson.

Listen to: Yiding Isabelle Niu, piano, with the Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra under  conductor Eduardo Leandro:




18. John Adams, Century Rolls (piano concerto, 1997, U.S.)
Century Rolls is a piano concerto by the American composer John Adams. Commissioned by Emanuel Ax, the work dates from 1997. Ax was the soloist in the concerto's premiere on September 25, 1997 in Cleveland, Ohio, with Christoph von Dohnányi conducting The Cleveland Orchestra.

Adams conceived the work after hearing the distinct sounds of a 1920s player-piano, and the work was "in part an attempt to recreate that initial response I had received to the sound of the piano as heard via the medium of the piano roll." He has said that the concerto is his view on "the whole past century of piano music". In addition to the temporal element ("Century"), the title refers to old piano rolls.

Listen to: Lukas Geniušas with the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Karolis Variakojis:




19. Leonardo Balada, Piano Concerto No 3 (1999, Spain/U.S.)
Leonardo Balada (born 1933) is an American composer of Spanish origin. He studied at the Conservatorio del Liceu in Barcelona and, after emigrating to the United States in 1956, continued his education at the Juilliard School in New York. He studied composition with Vincent Persichetti, Aaron Copland and Igor Markevitch. Since 1970 he has taught at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1981 he received U.S. citizenship.

In his music he incorporated North American and Spanish folk tunes. Most of his works, including those for purely instrumental ensemble, are based on human speech or song.

The Third Piano Concerto was finished in 1999 and the complete work premiered on 12 February 2000 by Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and Rosa Torres-Pardo as soloist. The concerto is well known for its wealth of folk elements. It is divided into three untitled movements. In the first movement, the composer uses elements from folk music of Spain, recreating a pasodoble, with a timbral arrangement that tries to imitate a street organ. The second movement evokes melodic textures that are similar to the music of Al-Andalus. In the third movement, the composer writes a jota aragonesa, a typical music genre from Aragon, in which Balada maintains the melodic structures from the first movement.

A contemporary Spanish voice that ably blends modernity and the past without compromise.

[Performance listened to: Rosa Torres-Pardo, piano, with the Barcelona Symphony and Catalonia National Orchestra conducted by Jose Serebrier on Naxos]

20. Krzysztof Penderecki, Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra (2001/2002, Poland)
Krzysztof Penderecki (1933 – 2020) was a Polish composer whose best known works include Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, Symphony No. 3, his St Luke Passion, and Polish Requiem. Penderecki's oeuvre includes four operas, eight symphonies and other orchestral pieces, a variety of instrumental concertos, choral settings of mainly religious texts, as well as chamber and instrumental works.

Penderecki’s Piano Concerto was written during 2001-2, in honor of Marie-Joseé Kravis, and given its premiere in Carnegie Hall, New York on 9th May 2002 with Emanuel Ax as soloist and Wolfgang Sawallisch conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra. A major revision was undertaken five years later and first heard in Cincinnati on 7th December 2007, with Barry Douglas as soloist and the composer conducting the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

The concerto comprises ten movements played without pause. It renews Penderecki’s involvement with the ‘grand’ concerto tradition, notably of the Russian lineage that had its culmination in Rachmaninov and Prokofiev. The subtitle, ‘Resurrection’, is made musically explicit by the plainsong-like idea (which was conceived in the aftermath of the ‘9/11’ terrorist attacks) that only gradually makes its way into the foreground before emerging at full strength during the climactic stages.

Listen to: Mūza Rubackytė at Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society. Conductor Maximiano Valdes:

21. Philip Glass, Double Concerto for Two Pianos (2015, U.S.)
The Double Concerto for Two Pianos was composed especially for the Labèque sisters who are sibling pianists renowned for their incredible synchronicity and energy.

The work itself follows the three movement form in which many concertos are conceived. However in this case the first and second movements are both fast and the slow movement is the third and last part of the concerto. From the very first bar of the concerto, we hear that the pianos and the orchestra are part of one tapestry of sound. All throughout the work one hears the pianists playing figures which are doubled by sections of the orchestra, or where the range of certain instruments end, other instruments pick up the thread and continue the melodic or rhythmic line. In other words, the relationship of the soloist to the orchestra is not the usual one, contrasting the smaller duo with the larger orchestral ensemble. Instead, the music of the soloists is shared between the two and the orchestra serves to extend the range and color of the soloists.

Listen to: Katia and Marielle Labeque with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by John Adams:





22. Thomas Adès, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (2018, Britain)
Thomas Adès's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the pianist Kirill Gerstein and was completed in 2018. It was first performed by Gerstein and the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer at Symphony Hall, Boston, on 7 March 2019.

The Piano Concerto is cast in three movements in the traditional fast–slow–fast form: Allegramente - Andante gravemente - Allegro gioioso. The first movement Allegramente opens with a statement of the theme by piano and then tutti. A march-like bridge passage leads to the more expressive second subject, first played by the piano and then taken up by the orchestra. The nocturnal second movement rises from dark chords in the low brass and woodwinds. The finale is a riotous romp.

Adès's Piano Concerto has been highly praised by music critics. Aaron Keebaugh of the Boston Classical Review wrote, "Throughout its thirty-minute span, the composer paints a bright sonic picture through thorny dissonances and wild chromatic diversions. Its melodies unfold through quick-changing meters to form asymmetric shapes, with orchestral tuttis never seeming to fall on the beat." He added, "The effect is mesmerizing, and the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra stands as Adès' greatest achievement to date."

[Performance listened to: Kirill Gerstein with the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Thomas Adès on DG]

[With thanks to some relevant public domain articles in either the German, Japanese, Dutch or English Wikipedia]

Best Piano Concertos from the Twentieth Century: Part One (1904-1932)
Best Piano Concertos from the Twentieth Century: Part Two (1926-1948)
Best Piano Concertos from the Twentieth Century: Part Three (1951-2018)

Classical Music Index