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Tchaikovsky’s Concert Fantasy for Piano and
Orchestra op. 56 was first
published in 1884. He dedicated the two-piano arrangement to Anna Esipova
who actually never performed it. The Concert Fantasy had its first
public performance by Taneyev, to great acclaim, on February 22, 1885. In
1893 the full score was dedicated to Sophie Menter, student of Liszt and
Tausig, who performed it to great success. Less magnificently imperial than
the First Piano Concerto, the two-movement Concert Fantasy
still maintains the technical virtuosity and sweeping melodies like the
First. The first movement, the quasi rondo, introduces almost
immediately a huge solo cadenza that demands great virtuosity. The second
movement, contrastes, reflects a lyrical minor key as well as the
dynamic rhythms of a Russian dance in the major key. In both movements,
embellishments appear on the melody as it unravels. |
