Piano Concerto (Dvořák)

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The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G minor, Op. 33 was the first of three concertos that Antonín Dvořák composed -- he wrote a piano concerto, a violin concerto and, lastly, a cello concerto -- and without a doubt it is his least known and least performed concerto. The verdict, whether just or not, has generally been that the piano concerto was more successful as a symphonic piece than one for the piano.

As the eminent music critic Harold Schonberg put it, Dvořák wrote "an attractive Piano Concerto in G minor with a rather ineffective piano part, a beautiful Violin Concerto in A minor, and a supreme Cello Concerto in B minor" (The Lives of the Great Composers, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, revised edition, 1980).

Dvořák composed his piano concerto from late August through September 14 of 1876. Its autograph version contains many corrections, erasures, cuts and additions. The bulk of these changes were made in the piano part. The work was premiered in Prague on March 24, 1878, with the orchestra of the Prague Provisional Theatre conducted by Adolf Cech with the Czech pianist Karel Slavkovsky as soloist.

Dvořák himself realized full well that he had not created a piece in which the piano does battle with the orchestra. It is not a virtuoso's piano concerto. As Dvořák wrote: "I see I am unable to write a Concerto for a virtuoso; I must think of other things."

What Dvořák thought of, instead, was a concerto with great symphonic values in which the piano plays a leading part in the orchestra rather than opposed to it.

[edit] Selected discography

Sviatoslav Richter: Dvorák's Piano Concerto & Schubert's "Wanderer" Fantasy. Bavarian State Orchestra conducted by Carlos Kleiber. EMI Great Recordings Of The Century (catalog no. 66947)