Piano Concerto (Barber)

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The piano concerto op. 38 is the only piano concerto by the American composer Samuel Barber . It premiered in 1962 and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1963 .

History of origin

The concert was commissioned by the music publisher G. Schirmer on its 100th anniversary. Barber began composing in March 1960, first finished the 2nd movement in the summer of 1962 and then the whole concert on September 9, 1962. Work on the piece, and especially on the third movement, had to be interrupted several times. His sister's death fell on on July 3, 1961 put him in a depression and in March 1962 he was invited to a composers' congress in the Soviet Union . He wrote the work for the pianist John Browning , who had already premiered his Nocturne , a homage to the composer John Field . Barber wrote the work for him, so he first let Browning play parts of his repertoire in order to get to know his style and his technical possibilities. It is dedicated to a friend of Barber's, Manfred Ibel. The world premiere took place on September 24, 1962, just 15 days after the concert was completed. Browning was accompanied by the Boston Symphony Orchestra , which made music under the direction of Erich Leinsdorf . The performance lasted 26 minutes and was recorded. The concert was part of the inauguration week of the Lincoln Center and took place in the later David Geffen Hall .

construction

The concert is divided into three movements and is written for solo piano , piccolo , 2 flutes , 2 oboes , English horn , two clarinets , bass clarinet , two bassoons , four  horns , three trumpets , three trombones , timpani , snare drum , Bass drum , pool , Tam-tam , tom-tom , triangle , xylophone , whip , harp and strings .

1st movement: Allegro appassionato

The concert begins with a solo part, with the piano introducing three themes, the first in a declamatory manner and the following two more rhythmically. The orchestra interrupts this part with a main theme presented più mosso . The thematic material is processed until the tempo slows down (doppio meno mosso) and the oboe begins a second lyrical part. The movement ends with a solo cadenza and an orchestral recapitulation that ends fortissimo . The fortissimo ending goes back to Leinsdorf, who heard Browning play the first two movements and found the original pianissimo ending to be too little in contrast to the second movement.

2nd movement: Canzone: Moderato

For the second movement, Barber used material from Elegy , an earlier composition of his. He wrote this work for flute and piano in 1959 for Manfred Ibel, who would later be the dedicatee of the piano concerto. He divided the original melody between the solo flute, oboe and piano, while the piano accompaniment largely became harp and string passages and only small parts of the piano part remained. The rework made the movement about twice as long as the original piece. The movement is in C sharp minor , is monothematic and consists of three modified stanzas and a coda . A relatively slow tempo and a smaller dynamic range create a strong contrast to the first movement.

3rd movement: Allegro molto

The third movement, in 5/4 time, is much livelier than the previous movement. The movement is strongly related to B flat major and follows a five-part rondo form (ABACA). In bar six, a distinctive five-note bass ostinato is introduced in the piano at the same time as the main theme . The movement is strongly rhythmic and has been compared by critics with works by Igor Stravinsky . On the recommendation of Browning and Vladimir Horowitz , Barber changed some parts of the piano part to make it more playable. According to Browning, parts of the movement are inspired by a Prelude by Claude Debussy , the Prelude Les Fées sont d'exquises danseuses .

reception

The concert was generally well received by critics and the audience. This is how they wrote about the premiere:

“This is a real virtuoso concerto, with some staggeringly difficult writing. It also has a strong sense of melodic profile, a lyric slow movement and a sense of confidence in the entire conception ... "

“This is a real virtuoso concerto, which is sometimes incredibly difficult to write. It also has a strong melodic profile, a slow, lyrical movement and a kind of self-confidence in the whole concept ... "

- Harold Schonberg : "Music: Barber Concerto", New York Times, September 25, 1962, section 2, p. 32

Even a year later, the work was praised by the trade press:

"... in my view it is the best piano concerto ever written by an American, and its new found fame is more than justified."

"... in my opinion the best piano concerto ever written by an American, and his newfound fame is more than justified."

- Jay S. Harrison , "The New York Music Scene," Musical America, December 1963, p. 178

But it was also "big, splashy, old-fashioned" ( Alan Rich : "Classical", High Fidelity, December 1964, German: "gross, pompös, old-fashioned") and "might have almost been written 100 years earlier." ( Malcon Rayment : "Orchestral", Records and Recordings, April 1975, German: "could have been written almost 100 years earlier."). Influences were identified from Prokofiev , Rachmaninoff , Ravel , Bartók and from jazz .

Recordings (selection)

literature

  • Barbara B. Heyman: Samuel Barber: A Thematic Catalog of the Complete Works , pp. 385–389, Oxford University Press, New York 2012.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jonathan Verbeten: An "Old-Fashioned" American Concerto: Exploring Neo-Romanticism in Samuel Barber's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 38. Texas Tech University, 2016, p. 3 , accessed May 9, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Jonathan Verbeten: An "Old-Fashioned" American Concerto: Exploring Neo-Romanticism in Samuel Barber's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 38. Texas Tech University, 2016, p. 5 , accessed May 9, 2017 .
  3. ↑ Jonathan Verbeten: An "Old-Fashioned" American Concerto: Exploring Neo-Romanticism in Samuel Barber's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 38. Texas Tech University, 2016, p. 6 , accessed May 9, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Jonathan Verbeten: An "Old-Fashioned" American Concerto: Exploring Neo-Romanticism in Samuel Barber's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 38. Texas Tech University, 2016, p. 2 , accessed May 9, 2017 .