Piano Concerto (Vaughan Williams)
The Piano Concerto in C by the English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) premiered in 1933 with Harriet Cohen as the soloist. There is also a later version for two pianos.
Origin, premiere and reception
Vaughan Williams designed the first two movements of his piano concerto in C in 1926. In 1930/31, after completing his ballet job , he revised them and added a final movement. In October 1931 he sent the work to the pianist Harriet Cohen, to whom it is also dedicated. The first performance of the piano concerto took place on February 1, 1933 in London with the dedicatee as soloist and the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Adrian Boult . A few days before the concert, Vaughan Williams informed Harriet Cohen that he had given Boult a carte blanche to thin out the instrumentation if he had the impression that it was too thickly orchestrated.
The premiere concert found an ambivalent reception, especially because of the percussive use of the piano and the rather rugged harmony. At a subsequent performance in October 1933 under the direction of Hermann Scherchen in Strasbourg , however, it met with admiration from fellow composer Béla Bartók .
Vaughan Williams revised the finale after the premiere and deleted, among other things, a quote from the 3rd Symphony by Arnold Bax , which was intended as a symbol of friendship, but had caused irritation. The piano concerto was printed in 1936. At Boult's suggestion, Joseph Cooper created a version for 2 pianos and orchestra in 1946 in collaboration with the composer, who took this opportunity to revise the finale again (the concert now ends quietly instead of ten tutti beats ) . The concert was first performed in this form on November 22, 1946 in London, played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Adrian Boult with the soloists Cyril Smith and Phyllis Sellick .
In the following decades, the version for two pianos was in the foreground, but the original instrumentation is now favored again.
Cast and playing time
In addition to the solo piano (or 2 pianos), the score provides for the following instrumentation: 2 flutes , 2 oboes , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons , 4 horns , 2 trumpets , 3 trombones , tuba , timpani , percussion ( triangle , snare drum , cymbals , Bass drum , tam-tam ), organ (optional) and strings .
The performance lasts about 27 minutes.
Characterization and sequence of sentences
Vaughan Williams treats the piano in the corner movements over long passages as a percussion instrument, comparable to works by Paul Hindemith and Béla Bartók. The austere harmony of the very densely orchestrated work is close to the job and the 4th Symphony composed between 1931 and 1934 . The three movements flow into one another without a break:
- I Toccata: Allegro moderato - Largamente - Cadenza : The short movement can be interpreted structurally as a sonata form or a sonata rondo . The main theme is based on ascending fourths , followed by a more popular and cheerful theme. A piano cadence leads to the second movement.
- II Romanza: Lento : Slow movement with echoes of Impressionism (Vaughan Williams studied with Maurice Ravel in 1908 ), in which flute, oboe and horn appear as the main accompaniment to the piano movement, which is again more conventional here.
- III Fuga Chromatica con Finale alla Tedesca: The movement title refers to Beethoven's string quartet op. 130 with its 4th movement “Alla danza tedesca” including the grand fugue originally intended as the finale . The fugue of the piano concerto ends in a massive stretta , with an additional organ. An extended cadenza conveys the waltz-like finale, which is based on the material of the fugue and, towards the end, also takes up themes from the first two movements.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Kennedy: The Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Oxford University Press, 2nd ed. London 1980, ISBN 0193154544 , p. 236
literature
- Michael Kennedy: The Works of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Oxford University Press, 2nd Ed. London 1980, ISBN 0193154544 , pp. 235-238, 262-264.
- Bernard Benoliel: CD-text Lyrita 10103 (Vaughan Williams: Piano Concerto in C / John Foulds: Dynamic Triptych; Howard Shelley, Vernon Handley, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.)