Einojuhani Rautavaara wrote his Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 45, in 1969.
The piece contains many innovative uses of polytonality, cluster chords and extended uses of form.Judd, Timothy (2019). "Einojuhani Rautavaara’s First Piano Concerto: Twentieth Century Finnish Neo-Romanticism". The Listener's Club. Retrieved 10 June 2020. It was during this time that Rautavaara had become disenchanted with the serialist and twelve-tone techniques of his previous works, and abandoned them in favor of a more idiosyncratic, romantic, and avant-garde style.Rickards, Guy (2016). "Einojuhani Rautavaara obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
Movements The concerto is in three movements.
I. Con grandezza The first movement, Con grandezza, begins with a piano solo. For the first thirteen bars, there are octave clusters in the right hand, outlining a melody in D dorian, and harmonizing with a D major/minor arpeggio in the left hand. The orchestra joins abruptly after, imitating the piano intro. The piano and orchestra bounce themes off of each other, before a large climax, where the pianist is instructed to slam their arm on the keyboard to simulate a 3-octave wide cluster chord.
II. Andante The second movement starts with a C drone in the strings, and ends with more tone clusters that lead into the beginning of the next movement.
III. Molto vivace The third movement provides a strong climax with themes from the first movement with prominent brass parts.
Instrumentation Woodwinds 2 Flutes (second doubling piccolo) 2 Clarinets Brass 4 Horns 2 Trumpets 2 Trombones Percussion Timpani Unpitched percussion (triangle, snare drum, tam-tam, cymbal, woodblocks) Piano Strings 16 Violins 8 Violas 8 Cellos 4 Basses
See also Piano Concerto No. 2 (Rautavaara) Piano Concerto No. 3 (Rautavaara)
References