The Concierto heroico for piano

Piano

The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...

 and orchestra was composed by Joaquín Rodrigo

Joaquín Rodrigo

Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre, 1st Marquis of the Gardens of Aranjuez , commonly known as Joaquín Rodrigo, was a composer of classical music and a virtuoso pianist. Despite being nearly blind from an early age, he achieved great success...

 for pianist Leopoldo Querol

Leopoldo Querol

Leopoldo Querol was a Spanish classical pianist.Querol was born in Vinaròs, Castellón in 1899. He was a graduate of the Valencia Conservatory....

 between 1935 and 1943.

Rodrigo began work on the concerto in 1935, and completed the first two movements before setting the work aside; having forgotten about it, he returned and completed it in 1945. The piece is called "heroic" because of the martial

Martial

Marcus Valerius Martialis , was a Latin poet from Hispania best known for his twelve books of Epigrams, published in Rome between AD 86 and 103, during the reigns of the emperors Domitian, Nerva and Trajan...

 rhythms and fanfare

Fanfare

A Fanfare is a relatively short piece of music that is typically played by trumpets and other brass instruments often accompanied by percussion...

s of the first movement. Such touches were common to the era, and were sometimes erroneously taken to suggest Rodrigo's support of Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco

Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...

.

The piece is in four movements:

• Allegro con brio
• Scherzo (allegro molto ma pesante)
• Largo
• Finale

A modified version of the concerto, produced for Joaquín Achúcarro

Joaquín Achúcarro

Joaquín Achúcarro is a Basque Spanish classical pianist.- Biography and career :Achúcarro was born in Bilbao, Spain, in the difficult years of the Spanish post-war period. He began piano lessons at the Bilbao Conservatory and, in 1956, at the age of 13, made his concerto debut in Bilbao playing a...

, was first performed in 1999; this removed two virtuosic cadenza

Cadenza

In music, a cadenza is, generically, an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists, usually in a "free" rhythmic style, and often allowing for virtuosic display....

s and balanced the relationship between the piano and orchestral parts.

A typical performance of the concerto lasts about 30 minutes.