Piano Concerto (Beach)

The Piano Concerto in C-sharp minor, Op. 45, is a composition for solo piano and orchestra in four movements by the American composer Amy Beach. The work was composed between September 1898 and September 1899. It was first performed in Boston on April 7, 1900, with the composer as the soloist and the Boston Symphony Orchestra performing under the conductor Wilhelm Gericke.[1] The composition is dedicated to the musician Teresa Carreño and was the first piano concerto by an American female composer.[2][3]

Composition

The Piano Concerto has a duration of roughly 37 minutes and is composed in four movements:

  1. Allegro moderato
  2. Scherzo: Vivaco (Perpetuum mobile)
  3. Largo
  4. Allegro con scioltezza

The first movement "Allegro moderato" is composed in sonata form and is the longest of the four movements. The "Scherzo" is based on Beach's song "Empress of Night", Op. 1, No. 4, originally set to a poem by her husband Henry Beach and dedicated to her mother. Likewise, the somber third movement "Largo" is based on Beach's song "Twilight", Op. 2, No. 1, and is dedicated to her husband, whose poetry again served as the original text. The fourth movement "Allegro con scioltezza" recalls the theme from "Largo" while ushering an exuberant finale.[1]

Instrumentation

The work is scored for solo piano and an orchestra comprising two flutes (doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets (doubling bass clarinet), two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, and strings.[1]

Reception

The Piano Concerto has been praised as an overlooked masterwork by modern critics. Phil Greenfield of The Baltimore Sun called it "a colorful, dashing work that might become extremely popular if enough people get a chance to hear it."[3] Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle also lauded the composition, writing:

Its four movements are packed with incident -- beautifully shaped melodies (several of them drawn from her songs), a forthright rhythmic profile and a vivacious and sometimes contentious interplay between soloist and orchestra. The piano part is as flashy and demanding as a virtuoso vehicle calls for, but there is also an element of poignancy about it -- a sense of constraint that seems to shadow even the work's most extroverted passages.[4]

Andrew Achenbach of Gramophone similarly declared it "ambitious" and "singularly impressive", remarking:

An expansively rhetorical Allegro moderato launches the work before a playful perpetuum mobile scherzo and moody Largo (described by its creator as a 'dark, tragic lament'); the finale (which follows without a break) goes with a delightful swing. In fact, it's a rewarding achievement all round, full of brilliantly idiomatic solo writing (Beach was a virtuoso pianist herself and performed the work many times) and lent further autobiographical intrigue by its assimilation of thematic material from three early songs.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Block, Adrienne Fried (2003). Beach: Piano Concerto / 'Gaelic' Symphony (CD liner). Naxos Records. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  2. ↑ Sletcher, Michael (January 1, 2004). New England: The Greenwood encyclopedia of American regional cultures. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 337. ISBN 9780313327537.
  3. 1 2 Greenfield, Phil (October 7, 1994). "Beach's piano concerto will take center stage". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  4. ↑ Kosman, Joshua (March 27, 2000). "Thwarted Composer's Intense Work". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  5. ↑ Achenbach, Andrew (June 2003). "Beach Piano concerto; Symphony No 2: One of the most valuable releases yet in Naxos's American Classics series". Gramophone. Retrieved January 9, 2016.

Sources

See also

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