Piano Concerto

Tippett’s Piano Concerto was completed in August 1955 with the recent experience and (qualified) success of his first opera, The Midsummer Marriage, still fresh in his memory. It is among the last of his works to dwell within the ecstatically charged sound world of that opera before he departed for a more sinuous, austere language in its successor, King Priam. It also stands as a songful riposte to the more angular, percussive avenues explored in piano concertos of recent decades by the likes of Bartók, Prokofiev and Stravinsky. Since its Birmingham premiere with Louis Kentner, it has been championed by numerous pianists including John Ogdon, Steven Osborne and Lang Lang. The expansive opening movement luxuriates in the enchanted world of The Midsummer Marriage, with intertwining woodwind lines and twinkling celesta. The central slow movement veers closer to the more troubled atmosphere of Mahlerian night music before the cumulative tension is dispelled by a jubilant “Rondo” finale in which Tippett’s love of the blues is amply made evident.