Repertoire
Tōru Takemitsu: Requiem for Strings (1957) 8’
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 (1875) 36’
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra in F minor, Sz 116 (1943) 38’
Artists
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra (OBC)
Martín García García, piano
Roderick Cox, conductor
Program
Piano Concerto No. 1 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is a major work, impacting not only on the history of a genre but on all work for piano. In the dialogue between the soloist and the orchestra, the Russian composer demonstrates a masterly control over time, with a captivating use of melody. A concerto whose demanding technical skills intimidated Nikolai Rubinstein, it was dedicated to Hans von Bülow, who finally premiered it in Boston to great acclaim.With his Concerto for Orchestra, Béla Bartók devised a symphonic work in concertante style, with solo instruments that emerge from a stream of diverse sounds in a mosaic in which all the musicians naturally find their place. This exhilarating journey of discovery into Bartók’s popular roots, with the aid of the orchestra’s different instruments, was a commission by Serge Koussevitzsky, given to the composer at the end of his life during his unhappy exile in the United States.
With this work, written in the composer’s youth in memory of his maestro, Toru Takemitsu managed to create a simple requiem with a strong emotional intensity. The final outcome captivated Igor Stravinsky.
