Ralph Vaughan Williams - Piano Concerto - III. Fuga Chromatica con Finale alla Tedesca (2/2)

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958)
Piano Concerto in C (1926-31)

I. Toccata
II. Romanza
III. Fuga Chromatica con Finale alla Tedesca

Howard Shelley, piano
Vernon Handley/Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

The Piano Concerto in C is a concertante work by Ralph Vaughan Williams written in 1926 (movements 1 & 2) and 1930-31 (movement 3). During the intervening years, the composer completed Job: A Masque for Dancing and began work on his Fourth Symphony. The concerto shares some thematic characteristics with these works, as well as some of their drama and turbulence.

Structure:

1. Toccata: Allegro moderato - Largamente - Cadenza

The concerto begins with driving, energetic music from the soloist set against a threatening, rising theme in the orchestra. A faster, more scherzo-like idea, shared out equally between piano and orchestra, soon contrasts against the opening music. These two blocks of music alternate, forming the basis of the entire movement. It is as though the traditional dialogue between soloist and orchestra has been supplanted by a more generalised dialogue of musical types. At the movement's climax, a brief and thunderous piano solo is joined by the full orchestra. However, the orchestra suddenly cuts off to leave the piano musing alone in a short lyrical cadenza. This leads without a break into the slow movement.

2. Romanza: Lento

The Romanza is more delicate, providing the listener with hints of Vaughan Williams's previous studies with Maurice Ravel.

3. Fuga chromatica con Finale alla Tedesca

Again without a pause from the previous music, the closing movement begins with a fugue that is linked to a waltz finale by flights of virtuosity from the piano soloist. It closes with the ensemble repeating themes from the first two movements, and then abruptly closes.

The work was premiered on 1 February 1933 by Harriet Cohen, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra directed by Sir Adrian Boult. The Finale was edited shortly thereafter and the work was published in 1936. The concerto was not well-received at first, being considered unrewarding to the soloist. Though the piece provides ample opportunity for virtuosity in all movements, Vaughan Williams treated the piano as a percussion instrument, as did Béla Bartók and Paul Hindemith during this period, with the texture at times inpenetrably thick. While the concerto was rated highly by some—Bartók, for one, was extremely impressed—Vaughan Williams took the advice of well-meaning friends and colleagues and reworked the piece into a Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, adding more texture to the piano parts with the assistance of Joseph Cooper in 1946. ~ Wikipedia

Category:

Music

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• ralph
• vaughan
• williams
• piano
• concerto

[Pianista061292]

3:35 reminded me of Agosti's Firebird Suite piano version

[mrspoonofbuttonmoon]

@4candles Agree about the Mahler connection. RVW certainly knew of Mahler, though claiming no particular fondness for his music.. Clearly something of Ravel's "La Valse" in there too (but the waltz is marked "Alla Tedesca" ~ in the German style).

Herbert Howells' 2nd Concerto (1924) seems to have been a direct influence. RVW was present at the (disastrous) premiere, and led support for Howells afterwards.

[mrspoonofbuttonmoon]

Been fascinated by this piece for a long time and wrote my Masters thesis on it :) From the sketches in the British Library it's clear that the Concerto gave RVW a heckuva lot of trouble, especially this final part where he toyed with various ideas for trying to unify it, before eventually (in 1946-7) giving up and creating the visionary B-major ending we hear here.

[JeremyHMarshall]

I find the first movement a bit indigestible and the second a bit bleak, but the finale is superb. Using the same motif for a fugue and a mad waltz - brilliant!

(For a good slow movement from another neglected English piano concerto, I'd recommend the Andante from Lennox Berkeley's Piano Concerto in B flat.)

[saotomi5102]

It's moments like the end where you see the quintessential English man in RVW, and I love him for it.

[4candles]

If you like this concerto and Vaughan Williams in general, you might like Joseph Marx' two piano concertos. Again, parts of this remind me of Prokofiev, and even Mahler(!?)

[shnimmuc]

A great work, and greatly underplayed in both verions

[AhaBach4Life]

Wow, I didn't know RVW had written a Piano Concerto!