The Piano Concerto in C-sharp minor, Op. 45, is a composition 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 ...

and

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

in four movements by the American composer

Amy Beach Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (September 5, 1867December 27, 1944) was an American composer and pianist. She was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music. Her "Gaelic" Symphony, premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in ...

. The work was composed between September 1898 and September 1899. It was first performed in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

on April 7, 1900, with the composer as the soloist and the Boston Symphony Orchestra performing under the conductor

Wilhelm Gericke Wilhelm Gericke (April 18, 1845 – October 27, 1925) was an Austrian-born conductor and composer who worked in Vienna and Boston. He was born in Schwanberg, Austria. Initially he trained in Graz to be a schoolmaster. This didn't work out, thoug ...

. The composition is dedicated to the musician

Teresa Carreño María Teresa Gertrudis de Jesús Carreño García (December 22, 1853June 12, 1917) was a Venezuelan pianist, soprano, composer, and conductor. Over the course of her 54-year concert career, she became an internationally renowned virtuoso piani ...

and was the first piano concerto by an American female composer.

Composition

Structure and origins

The concerto has a duration of roughly 37 minutes and is composed in four

movements Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

: The first movement "Allegro moderato" is composed in

sonata form Sonata form (also ''sonata-allegro form'' or ''first movement form'') is a musical structure generally consisting of three main sections: an exposition, a development, and a recapitulation. It has been used widely since the middle of the 18th c ...

and is the longest of the four movements. The second theme of this movement is based on Beach's song "Jeune fille et jeune fleur", Op. 1, No. 3. The "Scherzo" is based on Beach's song "Empress of Night", Op. 2, No. 3, originally set to a poem by her husband Henry Beach and dedicated to her mother Clara Cheney, née Marcy. Likewise, the somber third movement "Largo" is based on Beach's song "Twilight", Op. 2, No. 1, and is dedicated to her husband, whose poetry again served as the original text. The fourth movement "Allegro con scioltezza" recalls the theme from the third movement while ushering in an exuberant finale.

Instrumentation

The work is scored for solo piano and an orchestra comprising two

flutes The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...

(doubling 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, two clarinets (doubling bass clarinet), two bassoons, four

horns Horns or The Horns may refer to: * Plural of Horn (instrument), a group of musical instruments all with a horn-shaped bells * The Horns (Colorado), a summit on Cheyenne Mountain * ''Horns'' (novel), a dark fantasy novel written in 2010 by Joe Hill ...

, two

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 ...

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 ...

timpani Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a membrane called a head stretched over a large bowl traditionally ...

, and strings.

Reception

About the 1900 premiere, the critic Philip Hale wrote that it was "a disappointment in nearly every way," despite expectations based on the '' Gaelic Symphony''. Dedicatee Teresa Carreño wrote a friendly letter to Beach but because of objections from her manager, did not perform the concerto. Beach had to become her own apostle for the piece and in 1913—1917 played the solo part in it with nine different orchestras,Block 1998, p. 145 including some notable successes in Germany. The Piano Concerto has been praised as an overlooked masterwork by modern critics. Phil Greenfield of ''

The Baltimore Sun ''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries. Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by T ...

'' called it "a colorful, dashing work that might become extremely popular if enough people get a chance to hear it." Joshua Kosman of the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

'' also lauded the composition, writing: Andrew Achenbach of '' Gramophone'' similarly declared it "ambitious" and "singularly impressive", remarking:

References

Sources

External links

* * {{Authority control Compositions by Amy Beach 1899 compositions

Beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc sh ...

Compositions in C-sharp minor