Piano Concerto No. 1

Carl Vine’s Piano Concerto No. 1 (1997) is one of three large-scale works composed with pianist Michael Kieran Harvey in mind—the others being his first two piano sonatas. Vine describes it as “a conscious and continuous tribute to the piano concerto as a medium and historical entity,” a fact most apparent in the slow movement, with its long melodic lines evoking both Ravel and Bach. This 25-minute concerto is cast in the familiar three-movement form, with fast outer movements framing a central slow movement. The outer movements share some material (particularly in some lively conversational interchanges between piano and trumpet), and also some typically pianistic glitter across the orchestra, with harp and glockenspiel ensuring that the piano is less of an outsider than might have otherwise been the case.