Piano Concerto No. 1

Instrumentation

Piano solo, Symphony Orchestra

Recording, download - 5.41MB

Other Information

This concerto was commissioned by Richard Deering and John Scarfe [Conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra] who gave the first performance in Boston in 1988. The work is in three movements, the second and third being played without a break.

The first movement openes with a quiet theme on the piano from which the material for the whole work is taken. Indeed this motto reappears several times during the work. A forte chord on the orchestra ushers in the Allegro which forms the main part of the first movement.

The deeply personal aspects of the piano concerto show particularly in the melancholic mood of the slow movement, which reflects the sadness felt by Frank Stiles following the loss of his first wife Estelle. There is a return to optimism however in the last movement which has since been justified by his second marriage to Elizabeth.

The work ends with a cadenza for the piano in which material from the first and second movements returns. The orchestra quotes the motto theme and the work ends with an optimistic flourish.

In the accompanying extract from the Piano Concerto the performers are Richard Deering [piano], Vivaldi Concertante with Joseph Pilbery [conductor]. If the complete recording is required [strictly for private study] it, and the score, may be acquired at cost by contacting the CCA directly.