Piano Concerto No. 2 (Lindberg)

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The Piano Concerto No. 2 is a composition for solo piano and orchestra by the Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg. The work was jointly commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic, for which Lindberg was then composer-in-residence. It was given its world premiere at Avery Fisher Hall on May 3, 2012 by the pianist Yefim Bronfman and the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Alan Gilbert. [1] [2]

Piano musical instrument

The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700, in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a keyboard, which is a row of keys that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings.

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.

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.

Contents

Composition

The piano concerto has a duration of roughly 30 minutes and is written in three connected sections. It was composed between 2011 and 2012, and was Lindberg's fourth and final commission for the New York Philharmonic as its composer-in-residence. Lindberg has cited Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand as inspiration for the piece. [3]

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.

Piano Concerto for the Left Hand (Ravel) concerto by Maurice Ravel

The Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D major was composed by Maurice Ravel between 1929 and 1930, concurrently with his Piano Concerto in G. It was commissioned by the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm during World War I. The Concerto had its premiere in January 1932, with Wittgenstein as soloist performing with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

Instrumentation

The work is composed for solo piano and a large orchestra comprising three flutes (3rd doubling piccolo), two oboes, cor anglais, three clarinets (3rd doubling E-flat clarinet), bass clarinet, two bassoons, contrabassoon, four horns, three trumpets (3rd doubling trumpet in D), three trombones, tuba, timpani, two percussionists, and strings. [1]

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.

Oboe musical instrument of the woodwind family

Oboes belong to the classification of double reed woodwind instruments. Oboes are usually made of wood, but there are also oboes made of synthetic materials. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range. A soprano oboe measures roughly 65 cm long, with metal keys, a conical bore and a flared bell. Sound is produced by blowing into the reed at a sufficient air pressure, causing it to vibrate with the air column. The distinctive tone is versatile and has been described as "bright". When the word oboe is used alone, it is generally taken to mean the treble instrument rather than other instruments of the family, such as the bass oboe, the cor anglais, or oboe d'amore

Reception

The concerto has received mixed praise from music critics. Reviewing the world premiere, Anthony Tommasini of The New York Times called it "a surging, mercurial 32-minute work" and wrote, "The concerto has great stylistic diversity: elusive atonal stretches; writing for the piano that evokes the spiky style of Stockhausen one moment and the voluptuous colors of Ravel the next; orchestral flourishes with the sweep of Rachmaninoff; episodes recalling Mr. Lindberg's earlier work in which he explored extremes of complexity." He added, "Yet for all the shifts in language and style, the concerto comes across as organic and inevitable. I kept waiting for this teaser of a piece to break out. It never really did, but I look forward to hearing it again." [2] John Allison of The Daily Telegraph similarly described the concerto as "disappointingly conventional," but noted that "it still excitingly captures all the tussle inherent in the concerto form." [4]

Anthony "Tony" Tommasini is chief music critic for The New York Times, and has authored three books.

<i>The New York Times</i> Daily broadsheet newspaper based in New York City

The New York Times is an American newspaper based in New York City with worldwide influence and readership. Founded in 1851, the paper has won 127 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper. The Times is ranked 17th in the world by circulation and 2nd in the U.S.

Karlheinz Stockhausen German composer

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. A critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music". He is known for his groundbreaking work in electronic music, for introducing controlled chance into serial composition, and for musical spatialization.

However, the work was highly praised by Georgia Rowe of the San Francisco Classical Voice, who said, "...it emerged a work of tremendous power and considerable allure." She continued:

You can hear echoes of Ravel (and Rachmaninov, and Gershwin) in the gorgeous orchestral harmonies, and in the piano's cascading lines. Yet there's a deeply mysterious aspect to the score, as well. This is music that invites the listener to reverie: Ravel glimpsed through a kind of dream-lens. Over its 30-minute length, the concerto yielded a mesmerizing study in contrasts: a work that looks back fondly to early 20th-century Romanticism, while contemplating a dark, unknowable future. [5]

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The Piano Concerto is a composition for piano and orchestra by the Austrian composer Heinz Karl Gruber. The work was commissioned for the pianist Emanuel Ax by the New York Philharmonic, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich. It was composed from 2014 through 2016 and was given its world premiere by Emanuel Ax and the New York Philharmonic under the direction of Alan Gilbert at David Geffen Hall on January 5, 2017.

The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra is a musical composition by the American composer Aaron Copland. The work was commissioned by the conductor Serge Koussevitzky who was then music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. It was first performed on January 28, 1927, by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Koussevitzky with the composer himself as the soloist. The piece is dedicated to Copland's patron Alma Morgenthau Wertheim.

References

  1. 1 2 Lindberg, Magnus (2012). "Piano Concerto No. 2". Boosey & Hawkes . Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  2. 1 2 Tommasini, Anthony (May 4, 2012). "Composer's Parting Gift Is One to Remember: New York Philharmonic With Yefim Bronfman Playing Lindberg". The New York Times . Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  3. ↑ Allenby, David (February 2012). "Magnus Lindberg interview about Piano Concerto No.2". Boosey & Hawkes . Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  4. ↑ Allison, John (22 March 2015). "LPO/Jurowski/Bronfman, Royal Festival Hall, review: 'bravura'". The Daily Telegraph . Telegraph Media Group . Retrieved May 3, 2016.
  5. ↑ Rowe, Georgia (May 14, 2012). "N.Y. Philharmonic Comes to Conquer". San Francisco Classical Voice. Retrieved May 3, 2016.
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