The Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments was written by
Igor Stravinsky in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
in 1923–24. This work was revised in 1950.
It was composed four years after the ''
Symphonies of Wind Instruments'', which he wrote upon his arrival in Paris after his stay in
Switzerland. These two compositions are from Stravinsky's
neoclassical period, and represent a departure from the composer's previous Russian style, in which he produced works such as ''
The Rite of Spring
, image = Roerich Rite of Spring.jpg
, image_size = 350px
, caption = Concept design for act 1, part of Nicholas Roerich's designs for Diaghilev's 1913 production of '
, composer = Igor Stravinsky
, based_on ...
''.
This concerto numbers among many works for piano written about the same time to be played by the composer himself. This is also true of
Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra
The Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra was written by Igor Stravinsky in Nice between 1926 and 1929. The score was revised in 1949.
Stravinsky designed the Capriccio to be a virtuoso, virtuosic vehicle which would allow him to earn a living from pl ...
(1929), his
Sonata of 1924 and his
Serenade in A (1925). He kept the performance rights to himself for a number of years, wanting the engagements for playing this work for himself, as well as urgently desiring to keep "incompetent or Romantic hands" from "interpreting" the piece before undiscriminating audiences.
Orchestration
The concerto, as described in its name, is scored for solo
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 keybo ...
accompanied by an ensemble of
wind instruments
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitc ...
. The instrumentation of the wind section is what would be found in a standard
symphony orchestra: two
flutes,
piccolo, two
oboe
The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range.
...
s,
cor anglais, two
clarinets, two
bassoons (second bassoon doubling
contrabassoon), four horns, four
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
s, three
trombone
The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...
s, and
tuba
The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...
. The work also calls for
double bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...
es (divisi in 3) and a
timpano. Although combining winds and
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 keybo ...
was unusual at the time, the form had been explored earlier in the twentieth century and would be explored later.
Première
The concerto debuted under
Serge Koussevitzky at the
Opera of Paris on 22 May 1924 under the direction of the composer, who played the piano. Koussevitzky had requested such a work of Stravinsky.
Stravinsky made his British radio debut in the British premiere of the work, on 19 June 1927, with the Wireless Symphony Orchestra (the fore-runner of 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 his friend and champion
Edward Clark.
Sources
Boosey.com
References
External links
Live performancestreaming file performed by Dr. Willis G. Miller III.
Further reading
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{{Authority control
Concertos by Igor Stravinsky
Neoclassicism (music)
1924 compositions
1950 compositions