Piano Concerto

For Anna, who provokes all these sonorous images.

INTRODUCTION & WORK INSIGHTS BY ANNA-MARIA MAAK

Before composing his first piano concerto, Sef Albertz created a version of the Chaconne in D minor BWV 1004 by Johann Sebastian Bach in a first-ever version for piano and strings. The PIANO CONCERTO followed in a very natural way; it was like a kind of consequence for him. Thus, the two works have structural and harmonic parallels and are dramaturgically suited to be performed together as part of a concert evening. 

With his conciliatory background, this work is a joyful reunion of elements which, on the one hand, come from completely different systems of thought and worlds of feelings and yet, on the other, merge very organically into one unity. So Baroque formulas are mixed with Ibero-American musical structures, or patterns from the most recently urban culture coexist with folk elements. In the same way, harmonic developments, including textures of jazz, world music and classical romantic music become convincing in an own new context. Finally, it has been possible to create a symbiosis - a fusion - of different styles, which as a whole reflects the composer's own voice. 

The PIANO CONCERTO also involves the use of extended techniques, where instrumentalists must clap, snap with fingers, rubbing hands, playing "Col Legno Battuto", stamp on the floor, tapping on the wood of the instrument or use the flat of the hands and forearm to produce a tone cluster, etc. 

The PIANO CONCERTO is intended to be chamber music. The performance is possible with piano and string quartet or quintet or extended string instrumentation (3.3.2.2.1).

Premiered at the Leipzig MDR Festival of Light on June 16th, 2016 | Anna-Maria Maak, Soloist | MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra | Kristjan Järvi, Conductor