The Piano Concerto in E-flat was

John Ireland John Benjamin Ireland (January 30, 1914 – March 21, 1992) was a Canadian actor. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in ''All the King's Men'' (1949), making him the first Vancouver-born actor to receive an Oscar nomina ...

’s only concerto. It was composed in 1930 and given its first performance on 2 October of that year by its dedicatee

Helen Perkin Helen Craddock Perkin (25 February 1909 – 19 October 1996) was a pianist and composer, best known today for her association with John Ireland (composer), John Ireland during the 1920s and 1930s.Richards, Fiona. 'Helen Perkin: Pianist, Composer a ...

at a

Promenade Concert Promenade concerts were musical performances in the 18th and 19th century pleasure gardens of London, where the audience would stroll about while listening to the music. The term derives from the French ''se promener'', "to walk". Today, the te ...

in the

Queen's Hall The Queen's Hall was a concert hall in Langham Place, London, opened in 1893. Designed by the architect Thomas Knightley, it had room for an audience of about 2,500 people. It became London's principal concert venue. From 1895 until 1941, it ...

.Hyperion: The Romantic Concerto 39
/ref> The work was an immediate success and was frequently performed by pianists such as

Clifford Curzon Sir Clifford Michael Curzon CBE (né Siegenberg; 18 May 19071 September 1982) was an English classical pianist. Curzon studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and subsequently with Artur Schnabel in Berlin and Wanda Landowska and Nad ...

Moura Lympany Dame Moura Lympany DBE (18 August 191628 March 2005) was an English concert pianist. Biography She was born as Mary Gertrude Johnstone at Saltash, Cornwall. Her father was an army officer who had served in World War I and her mother original ...

Eileen Joyce Eileen Alannah Joyce CMG (died 25 March 1991) was an Australian pianist whose career spanned more than 30 years. She lived in England in her adult years. Her recordings made her popular in the 1930s and 1940s, particularly during World War I ...

Gina Bachauer Gina Bachauer (Greek: Τζίνα Μπαχάουερ; May 21, 1910, AthensAugust 22, 1976, Athens), was a Greek classical pianist who toured extensively in the United States and Europe. Interested in piano at a young age, Bachauer graduated from t ...

and

Arthur Rubinstein Arthur Rubinstein ( pl, Artur Rubinstein; 28 January 188720 December 1982) was a Polish Americans, Polish-American pianist.

. While it is considered one of the best piano concertos ever written by an Englishman, it is not often heard nowadays and is not part of the standard repertoire. Encouraged by its success, Ireland planned to write a second concerto, but he only completed one movement, which he called ''Legend''. This was also dedicated to Helen Perkin and she performed it for the first time on 12 January 1934, with the

BBC Symphony Orchestra The BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBC SO) is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. T ...

conducted by

Adrian Boult Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London ...

. Ireland was romantically interested in Perkin, but these feelings were not reciprocated. Perkin took up with George Mountford Adie (1901–1989), an architect and a disciple of

George Gurdjieff George Ivanovich Gurdjieff (; rus, Гео́ргий Ива́нович Гурджи́ев, r=Geórgy Ivánovich Gurdzhíev, p=ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj ɪˈvanəvʲɪd͡ʑ ɡʊrd͡ʐˈʐɨ(j)ɪf; hy, Գեորգի Իվանովիչ Գյուրջիև; c. 1 ...

, later marrying him and moving with him to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. As a result, Ireland withdrew the dedications of both works. Helen Perkin had played

Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer ...

's Piano Concerto No. 3 at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

, and it is likely Ireland heard this performance and was influenced by the Russian's work. He had not, however, heard

Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

's G major Concerto since it did not appear until after Ireland's concerto was published. It is puzzling, therefore, that many commentators see echoes in Ireland's concerto not only of Prokofiev's concerto but also of Ravel's. In its jazzy rhythms, there are also hints of

George Gershwin George Gershwin (; born Jacob Gershwine; September 26, 1898 – July 11, 1937) was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions ' ...

. The first person to record the Piano Concerto in E-flat was

, in 1942, with the Hallé Orchestra under

Leslie Heward Leslie Hays Heward (8 December 1897 – 3 May 1943) was an English conductor and composer. Between 1930 and 1942 he was the Music Director of the City of Birmingham Orchestra. Heward was born in Liversedge, Yorkshire, the son of a railway po ...

. She was also the soloist when the concerto was played at a special Proms concert in 1949, to celebrate Ireland's 70th birthday (this performance was also recorded, and released commercially). After the concert, Eileen Joyce and her partner took Ireland to dinner, and

Percy Grainger Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long an ...

also attended. The concerto was again played at Ireland's 80th birthday concert. It has also been recorded by

Eric Parkin Eric Parkin (24 March 1924 – 3 February 2020) was an English pianist. Parkin was born in Stevenage and attended Alleynes Grammar School there. He studied at Trinity College of Music with the Anglo-French pianist Frank Laffitte and with George ...

(twice),

Piers Lane Piers Lane (born 8 January 1958) is an Australian classical pianist. His performance career has taken him to more than 40 countries. His concerto repertoire exceeds 75 works. Early life Lane's English father and Australian mother met while au ...

Kathryn Stott Kathryn Stott (born 10 December 1958)

Colin Horsley Colin Robert Horsley (23 April 1920 – 28 July 2012) was a New Zealand classical pianist and teacher who was based in the United Kingdom all his working life. He had a significant artistic association with the composer Sir Lennox Berkeley. Biog ...

Geoffrey Tozer Geoffrey Peter Bede Hawkshaw Tozer (5 November 195421 August 2009) was an Australian classical pianist and composer. A child prodigy, he composed an opera at the age of eight and became the youngest recipient of a Churchill Fellowship award at 13 ...

Mark Bebbington Mark Bebbington (born 17 January 1972) is a British concert pianist. He is a notable advocate of British music. Biography Mark Bebbington studied at the Royal College of Music with Kendall Taylor and Phyllis Sellick and later in Italy with Aldo ...

(as part of his complete John Ireland piano music edition) and

John Lenehan John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

. The Piano Concerto is in three movements, with the slow movement leading directly into the finale without a break. Ireland is said to have included a quotation from Helen Perkin's Phantasy String Quartet, which won a

Cobbett Cobbett is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Hilary Dulcie Cobbett (1885–1976), British artist * William Cobbett (1763–1835), British radical agriculturist and prolific journalist. * Walter Willson Cobbett Walter Willson ...

Prize for composition earlier that year. But Perkin herself said it was "more a reminiscence than a direct quotation".Richards, Fiona: ''The Music of John Ireland'', Ashgate, 2000
/ref>

Notes

Sources

Hyperion Records: The Romantic Piano Concerto, Vol. 39 – Delius & Ireland

Alan Bush Music Trust: The Correspondence of Alan Bush and John Ireland

External links

* {{Authority control

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Concertos by John Ireland Piano music by John Ireland 1930 compositions Compositions in E-flat major