There aren't very many piano concertos out there for piano alone. The logic behind such a lopsided and seemingly self-contradictory formal concept is that the soloist undertakes both the solo part and the orchestral tutti on the same instrument; it goes back at least to Johann Sebastian Bach and his Italian Concerto. Kaikhosru Sorabji's point of departure in composing the Concerto per suonare da me solo in 1946 seems to have been the Concerto for Piano Solo in G sharp minor Op. 39/8-10 of Charles-Valentin Alkan. Like the ...
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There aren't very many piano concertos out there for piano alone. The logic behind such a lopsided and seemingly self-contradictory formal concept is that the soloist undertakes both the solo part and the orchestral tutti on the same instrument; it goes back at least to Johann Sebastian Bach and his Italian Concerto. Kaikhosru Sorabji's point of departure in composing the Concerto per suonare da me solo in 1946 seems to have been the Concerto for Piano Solo in G sharp minor Op. 39/8-10 of Charles-Valentin Alkan. Like the Alkan, Sorabji's solo concerto is dense, extremely busy, insanely difficult, and very long, only more so in all instances; the only pianists to take it up thus far had been Yonty Solomon, Sorabji himself, and Jonathan Powell here on Altarus' Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji: Concerto per suonare da me solo.The individual movements of this concerto are long enough to serve as concertos on their own, averaging out to 22 minutes apiece. Powell's performance is extremely impressive; a glance at...
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