Concertstuck, Op. 40: Full Orchestra, Solo Keyboard with Ensemble, Conductor Score

Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944) composed her Concertstück, Op. 40 for piano and orchestra in 1888, during a particularly productive period that also produced the ballet Callirhoë and the dramatic symphony Les Amazones, and the work represents one of her most ambitious large-scale compositions. Cast in a single continuous movement in C-sharp minor, the approximately twelve-to-fifteen-minute work combines the virtuosity of the Romantic piano concerto with the freer structure of a concert piece, developing several contrasting themes through brilliant solo writing and colorful orchestration; commentators have noted affinities with Liszt and Wagner alongside a distinctly French lyricism recalling Saint-Saëns and Bizet. Chaminade herself was the soloist at the premiere on April 18, 1888, in Antwerp, where Joseph Moreal conducted the orchestra of the Cercle Catholique Société de Musique in a concert that also included the premiere of Les Amazones; an especially important performance followed on January 20, 1889, at the Concerts Lamoureux in Paris under Charles Lamoureux, where the enthusiastic reception proved a turning point in Chaminade's career as a concert pianist. The score was published in 1888 and dedicated to pianist Louise Steiger, who became one of its early advocates, and Chaminade continued to perform the piece internationally, including with the Philadelphia Orchestra during her celebrated American tour of 1908. Although Concertstück, Op. 40 largely disappeared from the standard concerto repertoire during the twentieth century as Chaminade came to be remembered principally for her shorter piano pieces, songs, and the Flute Concertino, its recent revival in performances, recordings, and scholarship has encouraged a reassessment of it as one of her most substantial achievements and an important example of the late-nineteenth-century French Romantic concerto tradition. Instrumentation: 2+1(Picc).1+1(EH).2.2: 4.2+2(Crnt).3.1: Timp.Perc(2-3): Str(9.8.7.6.5 in set): Solo Piano in set. Reprint edition.