Concerto for piano solo

Concerto for Piano solo

A solo piano reduction from the full orchestral version.

For the sake of convenience it is best regarded as being in three movements. It has a cyclical nature in the sense that material from the nominal "first movement" is brought back towards the end, and in that certain falling motifs interconnect the different movements.

The first movement is somewhat in the manner of Rachmaninov, or less elevately, the famous Warsaw Concerto. The thematic material is derived from the opening falling gesture and the more decisive, but also descending, motif which follows it. The second motif is later transformed into very different minor key versions, whilst the movement concludes with an echo of the opening gesture.

The second movement is perhaps Chopinesque in nature, though the ornamental writing was influenced by Liapunov's Nuit d'ete etude. It depicts an intermezzo, a moment of reverie before the storm.

The third movement is the most consciously programmatic of the three. It is the only movement in which specific musical references have been used symbolically: the Dies Irae motif, the interval of the tritone, and the Tristan chord to symbolise redemption at the moment of transformation directed towards the triumphal return of motific material from the first movement.