Piano Concerto No. 1 (Lindberg)

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The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra is the first piano concerto by the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. The work was commissioned by the Helsinki Festival on September 4, 1991 and completed in 1994. It is dedicated to the pianist Paul Crossley. [1]

Piano concerto musical composition for piano and orchestra

A piano concerto is a type of concerto, a solo composition in the Classical music genre which is composed for a piano player, which is typically accompanied by an orchestra or other large ensemble. Piano concertos are typically virtuoso showpieces which require an advanced level of technique on the instrument, including melodic lines interspersed with rapid scales, arpeggios, chords, complex contrapuntal parts and other challenging material. When piano concertos are performed by a professional concert pianist, a large grand piano is almost always used, as the grand piano has a fuller tone and more projection than an upright piano. Piano concertos are typically written out in music notation, including sheet music for the pianist, orchestra parts for the orchestra members, and a full score for the conductor, who leads the orchestra in the accompaniment of the soloist.

Magnus Lindberg Finnish composer and pianist

Magnus Gustaf Adolf Lindberg is a Finnish composer and pianist. He was the New York Philharmonic's composer-in-residence from 2009 to 2012 and has been the London Philharmonic Orchestra's composer-in-residence since the beginning of the 2014–15 season.

Helsinki Festival

The Helsinki Festival is the largest multi-arts festival in Finland. It is also called Finland's biggest cultural event in terms of visitors. In 2015, around 295,000 people visited the Helsinki Festival.

Contents

Composition

The concerto has a duration of approximately 24 minutes and is composed in three numbered movements played without pause. The composition is partially modeled after Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major. [1]

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession. A movement is a section, "a major structural unit perceived as the result of the coincidence of relatively large numbers of structural phenomena".

A unit of a larger work that may stand by itself as a complete composition. Such divisions are usually self-contained. Most often the sequence of movements is arranged fast-slow-fast or in some other order that provides contrast.

Maurice Ravel French composer

Joseph Maurice Ravel was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer.

Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto in G major was composed between 1929 and 1931. The concerto is in three movements and is heavily influenced by jazz, which Ravel had encountered on a concert tour of the United States in 1928.

Instrumentation

The work is scored for a solo piano and an orchestra consisting of two flutes (doubling piccolo), oboe, cor anglais, two clarinets, bass clarinet, two bassoons (doubling contrabassoon), two horns, trumpet, trombone, tuba, two percussionists, harp, and strings. [1]

Orchestra large instrumental ensemble

An orchestra is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families, including bowed string instruments such as the violin, viola, cello, and double bass, brass instruments such as the horn, trumpet, trombone and tuba, woodwinds such as the flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon, and percussion instruments such as the timpani, bass drum, triangle, snare drum and cymbals, each grouped in sections. Other instruments such as the piano and celesta may sometimes appear in a fifth keyboard section or may stand alone, as may the concert harp and, for performances of some modern compositions, electronic instruments.

Western concert flute transverse woodwind instrument made of metal or wood

The Western concert flute is a transverse (side-blown) woodwind instrument made of metal or wood. It is the most common variant of the flute. A musician who plays the flute is called a flautist, flutist, flute player, or (rarely) fluter.

Piccolo small musical instrument of the flute family

The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The modern piccolo has most of the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written. This gave rise to the name ottavino, which the instrument is called in the scores of Italian composers. It is also called flauto piccolo or flautino.

Reception

Anthony Holden of The Observer called it "a dynamic, multi-layered work in which piano and orchestra take turns leading each other a hectic dance." He wrote, "Part-modelled on Ravel's G major concerto, its subtle, restless harmonic shifts perfectly suit Lindberg's stated aim of reclaiming the piano as a lyrical rather than a percussive instrument; amid the blazing climax before its diminuendo ending, his mighty cadenza did indeed prove as 'wicked' as promised." [2] Arnold Whittall of Gramophone opined, "At nearly 30 minutes, the concerto has its moments of routine, but these come earlier rather than later, and from the middle of the second movement the music builds an absorbing and exciting soundscape, broadening out in ways which announce one of Lindberg's most productive affinities – with his great Finnish precursor Sibelius." [3] Andrew Clements of The Guardian contrasted the work to Lindberg's Kraft , observing, "Certainly the transparency of the Piano Concerto (1994), with its classically proportioned scoring, makes a sharp contrast, as the solo piano threads its way, Berio-like, through iridescent textures and crystalline instrumental lines." [4]

<i>The Observer</i> weekly British newspaper, published on Sundays

The Observer is a British newspaper published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its sister papers The Guardian and The Guardian Weekly, whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993, it takes a social liberal or social democratic line on most issues. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.

Cadenza

In music, a cadenza is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing virtuosic display. During this time the accompaniment will rest, or sustain a note or chord. Thus an improvised cadenza is indicated in written notation by a fermata in all parts. A cadenza usually will occur over the final or penultimate note in a piece, the lead-in or over the final or penultimate note in an important subsection of a piece. It can also be found before a final coda or ritornello.

Arnold Whittall is a British musicologist and writer. He is Professor Emeritus at King's College London. Between 1975 and 1996 he was Professor at King's. Previously he lectured at Cambridge, Nottingham (1964–1969) and Cardiff (1969–1975).

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Aura is a composition for orchestra by the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. The work was commissioned by Suntory for the 1994 Suntory International program for music composition. Its world premiere was given on June 11, 1994 in Tokyo by the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Kazufumi Yamashita. The piece is dedicated in memoriam of the Polish composer Witold Lutosławski, who died partway through its composition.

Parada is an orchestral composition by the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. The piece was composed for the music festival Related Rocks which celebrates the works of Lindberg and related composers. Its world premiere was given at The Anvil, Basingstoke on February 6, 2002 by the Philharmonia Orchestra under the direction of Esa-Pekka Salonen, to whom the work is dedicated.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lindberg, Magnus (1994). "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra". G. Schirmer Inc. Retrieved June 1, 2016.
  2. ↑ Holden, Anthony (7 June 2007). "Return to the sorcery: This stately Lohengrin is 25 years old, but safe with an Elder statesman". The Observer . Guardian Media Group . Retrieved June 1, 2016.
  3. ↑ Whittall, Arnold (January 2005). "Lindberg Piano Concerto: Early works from the Finnish composer are definitely signposts to the future". Gramophone . Retrieved June 1, 2016.
  4. ↑ Clements, Andrew (20 May 2004). "Lindberg: Piano Concerto; Kraft: Lindberg/ Toimii Ensemble/ Finnish Radio Symphony/ Salonen". The Guardian . Guardian Media Group . Retrieved June 1, 2016.
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