Ernst Krenek (1900-1991)

Concerto pour piano et orchestre n° 1 op. 18 en fa dièse majeur (1923)

  • General information
    • Composition date: 1923
    • Duration: 30 mn
    • Publisher: Universal Edition
    • Opus: 18
Detailed formation
  • soloist: piano
  • 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, trumpet, strings

Premiere information

  • Date: 19 December 1923
    Location:

    Suisse, Winterthur


    Performers:

    Eduard Erdmann : piano, Hermann Scherchen.

Program note

By the time Eduard Erdmann (1896–1958) asked Krenek for a tonal piano concerto, the young composer had already embraced atonal music. But he took on the commission, seeing it as a welcome challenge, and composed the piece in F# major. The concerto begins and ends with solos for the piano – a formal device he returned to in the two subsequent piano concertos. In the general view, Schubert’s influence on Krenek did not emerge until about 1929; but Krenek acknowledged that he was already using the “tonal artifices” he had learned from Schubert when he wrote his Op. 18 concerto in 1923.

Source : Universal Edition.