Piano Concerto (Dvořák)

The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G minor, Op. 33 was the first of three concertos that Antonín Dvořák composed -- the piano concerto first, a violin concerto and, lastly, a cello concerto -- and the piano concerto is probably the least known and least performed. The verdict, whether just or not, has generally been that the piano concerto was more successful as a symphonic piece than one for the piano.

As the eminent music critic Harold Schonberg put it, Dvořák wrote "an attractive Piano Concerto in G minor with a rather ineffective piano part, a beautiful Violin Concerto in A minor, and a supreme Cello Concerto in B minor". ["The Lives of the Great Composers," W.W. Norton & Company, New York, revised edition, 1980]

Dvořák composed his piano concerto from late August through September 14, 1876. Its autograph version contains many corrections, erasures, cuts and additions, the bulk of which were made in the piano part. The work was premiered in Prague on March 24, 1878, with the orchestra of the Prague Provisional Theatre conducted by Adolf Cech with the Czech pianist Karel Slavkovsky.

Dvořák himself realized that he had not created a piece in which the piano does battle with the orchestra, as it is not a virtuosic piece. As Dvořák wrote: "I see I am unable to write a Concerto for a virtuoso; I must think of other things."

What Dvořák thought of, instead, was a symphonic concerto in which the piano plays a leading part in the orchestra rather than opposed to it.

Selected discography

* Sviatoslav Richter: Dvorák's Piano Concerto & Schubert's "Wanderer" Fantasy. Bavarian State Orchestra conducted by Carlos Kleiber. EMI Great Recordings Of The Century (catalog no. 66947)

Reference

External links

* [http://www.ivanmoravec.net/albums/al-su3067.html Dvořák Piano Concerto - Twins] Review of recording of concerto in its original version by Radoslav Kvapil and in its Kurz edition by Ivan Moravec.