The ''Concierto heroico'' for

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

and orchestra was composed by

Joaquín Rodrigo Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre, 1st Marquess of the Gardens of Aranjuez (; 22 November 1901 – 6 July 1999), was a Spanish composer and a virtuoso pianist. He is best known for composing the ''Concierto de Aranjuez'', a cornerstone of the classical gui ...

for pianist

Leopoldo Querol Leopoldo Querol (November 15, 1899August 26, 1985) was a Spanish classical pianist. Querol was born in Vinaròs, Castellón in 1899. He was a graduate of the Valencia Conservatory. In 1936 he was the soloist at the premiere of Federico Eliz ...

between 1935 and 1943. Rodrigo began work on the concerto in 1935 and completed the first two movements before setting the work aside; having forgotten about it, he returned and completed it in 1945. The piece is called "heroic" because of the

martial Marcus Valerius Martialis (known in English as Martial ; March, between 38 and 41 AD – between 102 and 104 AD) was a Roman poet from Hispania (modern Spain) best known for his twelve books of ''Epigrams'', published in Rome between AD 86 and ...

rhythms and

fanfare A fanfare (or fanfarade or flourish) is a short musical flourish which is typically played by trumpets, French horns or other brass instruments, often accompanied by percussion. It is a "brief improvised introduction to an instrumental perfo ...

s of the first movement.Twentieth-Century Music and Politics: Essays in Memory of Neil Edmunds
Fairclough, P. 2016. Routledge. Such touches were common to the era and were sometimes erroneously taken to suggest Rodrigo's support of

Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces in overthrowing the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War ...

. A modified version of the concerto, produced for Joaquín Achúcarro, was first performed in 1999; this removed two virtuosic

cadenza In music, a cadenza (from it, cadenza, link=no , meaning cadence; plural, ''cadenze'' ) is, generically, an improvisation, improvised or written-out ornament (music), ornamental passage (music), passage played or sung by a solo (music), sol ...

s and balanced the relationship between the piano and orchestral parts.

Movements

The piece is in four movements: *''Allegro con brio'' *''Scherzo (allegro molto ma pesante) *''Largo'' *''Finale'' A typical performance of the concerto lasts about 30 minutes.

References

Piano concertos Concertos by Joaquín Rodrigo 1943 compositions {{Concerto-stub