Piano Concerto (Furtwängler)

The Symphonic Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in B minor by Wilhelm Furtwängler was written between 1924 and 1937 and is among the longest of all piano concertos. It received its world premiere in Munich on October 1937, with Edwin Fischer as the piano soloist; Furtwängler conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In January 1939 there was a radio broadcast which has survived as the only documentation of the unpublished version of the concerto.

The piano concerto is cast in three movements: The first ("Schwer, pesante" in B minor) is an extensive sonata form movement of more than 30 minutes duration. As a second movement there follows an "Adagio solenne" in D major. It is influenced by Bruckner's and Brahms' adagio style and lasts about 11 minutes. The third movement ("Allegro moderato" in B minor) is composed in free form and has some hints of a rondo. Its duration is about 20 minutes and the work concludes in dark and gloomy mood with pianissimo dynamics.

Furtwängler's Symphonic Concerto received mixed reviews, and has, as a really difficult piece for both pianists and orchestras, rarely been performed in public. There were extensive revisions made to the concerto prior to its publication by Brucknerverlag of Wiesbaden in 1954, and this is the version that has been heard in public since then. Other notable champions of the work have included Paul Badura-Skoda, Daniel Barenboim, Konstantin Scherbakov, Gerhard Oppitz, Erik Then-Bergh, Gergely Boganyi, Bella Dagmar, Walter Prossnitz, Johannes Bork (June 14, 1950, with W.Furtwangler as conductor), Homero Francesch, Hirokuni Ishikawa, Takahiro Sonoda, Andras Schiff and David Lively (a pupil of Claudio Arrau).

Discography

On the Marco Polo label, it has been recorded by Alfred Walter conducting the Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Košice, with David Lively at the piano; this recording is available on CD. Conductor Daniel Baremboim took up the keyboard for a recording by the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Zubin Mehta, from a 1971 broadcast performance that several minor record companies issued on LP (such as Bongiovanni, Phorion and Penzance). On the Tahra label, Erik Then-Bergh recorded it with Rafael Kubelik and Orchestre Symphonique de la Radio Bavaroise.

References

*Arriola, Lloyd Paguia. "Wilhelm Furtwangler's Symphonisches Konzert for Piano and Orchestra: A Historical and Analytical Investigation". Doctoral dissertation, Juilliard School, 2002.