Works
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra |
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(2013) 4(4.afl).2.ca.4(4.bcl).2-4.3.2ttbn.1btbn.1-timp.4perc(I. mar, sus cym [sm], sus cym [sm], tam-t [med], bng; II. vib, cong, tempbl; III. xyl, tub bells, sus cym [med], b.d; IV. glsp, mar, sus cym [lg], tam-t [lg], 3tom-t)-2hp.cel-str Commissioned by the Boston Symphony Orchestra for Jonathan Biss and to celebrate the composer's eightieth birthday. First Performance: April 3, 2014 Boston, MA, Symphony Hall (USA) - Jonathan Biss, piano - Conductor: Robert Spano - Boston Symphony Orchestra Press When one speaks of the concerto as a genre, composers of the 20th and 21st centuries have felt more free to completely reinvent the terms of the discussion. Bernard Rands does so at once with a boldness and a marvelously organic quality in his striking new Concerto for Piano & Orchestra. In this concerto, neither party is subservient to the other. In fact our interlocutors are engaged in a constant empathic exchange of mood and information, audibly influencing the other's lines as they shape their own. The piece, a Boston Symphony Orchestra commission, follows what is an outwardly familiar three-movement flight path, but the subtlety of color and the sophistication of Rands's compositional craft, not to mention the protean interplay between soloist and ensemble, make this score feel refreshingly free of formulas. |