Marc Blitzstein
Marcus Samuel Blitzstein (March 2, 1905January 22, 1964), was an American composer, lyricist, and Libretto, librettist. He won national attention in 1937 when his pro-Trade union, union musical ''The Cradle Will Rock'', directed by Orson Welles, ...
wrote his Piano Concerto for piano and orchestra in 1931 when he was 25 years old. The concerto was not performed in public during the composer's lifetime; the
Brooklyn Philharmonic
There have been several organisations referred to as the Brooklyn Philharmonic. The most recent one was the now-defunct Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, an American orchestra based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, in existence f ...
premiered the piece on January 1, 1986, 22 years after Blitzstein's death.
Prior to the premiere, it had only been heard publicly twice, once in a two-piano version. Blitzstein had hoped to be the piano soloist at the concerto's premiere.
The concerto, 24 to 30 minutes in length,
is dedicated to musical patron Alene Erlanger.
Form
The concerto has three movements:
# Moderato molto-allegro
# Largo assai
# Allegro non troppo
Orchestration
The sheet music is published by
Boosey & Hawkes
Boosey & Hawkes is a British Music publisher (sheet music), music publisher, purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass instrument, brass, string instru ...
. They list the orchestration as
* Solo Piano
* 2 flutes + piccolo
* 2 oboes
* 2 clarinets
* 2 bassoons + contrabassoon
* 4 French horns
* 2 trumpets
* 2 trombones
* Bass trombone
* Tuba
* Strings
Recording
A full recording of the work was made in 1988 by Michael Barrett with the Brooklyn Philharmonic under Lukas Foss (CRI CD 554).
The first movement of the Piano Concerto was reissued on a CD titled Gay American Composers, vol. 2 (CRI CD 750). An excerpt from the third movement was issued on a sampler titled “Lollapalooza USA,” issued by Boosey & Hawkes (2005).
References
{{reflist
Blitzstein
Compositions by Marc Blitzstein