The Symphonic Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in B minor by Wilhelm Furtwängler

Wilhelm Furtwängler

Wilhelm Furtwängler was a German conductor and composer. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. By the 1930s he had built a reputation as one of the leading conductors in Europe, and he was the leading conductor who remained...

 was written between 1924 and 1937 and is among the longest of all piano concerto

Piano concerto

A piano concerto is a concerto written for piano and orchestra.See also harpsichord concerto; some of these works are occasionally played on piano...

s. It received its world premiere in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

 on October 1937, with Edwin Fischer

Edwin Fischer

Edwin Fischer was a Swiss classical pianist and conductor. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, particularly in the traditional Germanic repertoire of such composers as J. S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert...

 as the piano soloist; Furtwängler conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

The Berlin Philharmonic, German: , formerly Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester , is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany. In 2006, a group of ten European media outlets voted the Berlin Philharmonic number three on a list of "top ten European Orchestras", after the Vienna Philharmonic and the...

. In January 1939 there was a radio broadcast which has survived as the only documentation of the unpublished version of the concerto.

The piano concerto is cast in three movements: The first (Schwer, pesante in B minor

B minor

B minor is a minor scale based on B, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. The harmonic minor raises the A to A. Its key signature has two sharps .Its relative major is D major, and its parallel major is B major....

) is an extensive sonata form

Sonata form

Sonata form is a large-scale musical structure used widely since the middle of the 18th century . While it is typically used in the first movement of multi-movement pieces, it is sometimes used in subsequent movements as well—particularly the final movement...

 movement of more than 30 minutes duration. As a second movement there follows an Adagio solenne in D major

D major

D major is a major scale based on D, consisting of the pitches D, E, F, G, A, B, and C. Its key signature consists of two sharps. Its relative minor is B minor and its parallel minor is D minor....

. It is influenced by Bruckner

Anton Bruckner

Anton Bruckner was an Austrian composer known for his symphonies, masses, and motets. The first are considered emblematic of the final stage of Austro-German Romanticism because of their rich harmonic language, complex polyphony, and considerable length...

's and Brahms

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...

' adagio style and lasts about 11 minutes. The third movement (Allegro moderato in B minor) is composed in free form and has some hints of a rondo

Rondo

Rondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also to a character-type that is distinct from the form...

. Its duration is about 20 minutes and the work concludes in dark and gloomy mood with pianissimo dynamics

Dynamics (music)

In music, dynamics normally refers to the volume of a sound or note, but can also refer to every aspect of the execution of a given piece, either stylistic or functional . The term is also applied to the written or printed musical notation used to indicate dynamics...

.

Furtwängler's Symphonic Concerto received mixed reviews, and has, as a really difficult piece for both pianists and orchestras, rarely been performed in public. There were extensive revisions made to the concerto prior to its publication by Brucknerverlag of Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden

Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...

 in 1954, and this is the version that has been heard in public since then. Other notable champions of the work have included Paul Badura-Skoda

Paul Badura-Skoda

Paul Badura-Skoda is an Austrian pianist.He won first prize in the Austrian Music Competition in 1947. In 1949, he performed with distinguished conductors like Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan...

, Daniel Barenboim

Daniel Barenboim

Daniel Barenboim, KBE is an Argentinian-Israeli pianist and conductor. He has served as music director of several major symphonic and operatic orchestras and made numerous recordings....

, Konstantin Scherbakov

Konstantin Scherbakov

Konstantin Scherbakov is a Russian pianist. He was the winner of the first Rachmaninov Competition in 1983...

, Gerhard Oppitz

Gerhard Oppitz

Gerhard Oppitz is a German classical pianist.He studied with Paul Buck, Hugo Steurer and Wilhelm Kempff. In 1981 he was appointed professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München - the youngest in the history of the institute - where he still teaches. As a soloist he has appeared with...

, Erik Then-Bergh, Gergely Boganyi

Gergely Bogányi

Coming from a musical family, Gergely Bogányi is one of the youngest ever pianists to have won the Kossuth Prize, becoming one of the leading pianists of his generation.- Education :...

, Bella Dagmar, Walter Prossnitz, Johannes Bork (June 14, 1950, with W.Furtwangler as conductor), Homero Francesch

Homero Francesch

Homero Francesch is a Uruguay-born Swiss pianist.He attended piano lessons under Santiago Baranda Reyes in Uruguay and in 1967 he was awarded a scholarship by the German Academic Exchange Service...

, Hirokuni Ishikawa, Takahiro Sonoda, Andras Schiff

András Schiff

András Schiff is a Hungarian-born British classical pianist, who has won a number of awards including the Grammy and made numerous recordings.- Biography :...

 and David Lively (a pupil of Claudio Arrau

Claudio Arrau

Claudio Arrau León was a Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning from the baroque to 20th-century composers, especially Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms and Debussy...

).

Discography

On the Marco Polo label, it has been recorded by Alfred Walter conducting the Slovak State Philharmonic Orchestra, Košice, with David Lively at the piano; this recording is available on CD. Conductor Daniel Barenboim took up the keyboard for a recording by the Los Angeles Philharmonic

Los Angeles Philharmonic

The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...

 conducted by Zubin Mehta

Zubin Mehta

Zubin Mehta is an Indian conductor of western classical music. He is the Music Director for Life of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.-Biography:...

, from a 1971 broadcast performance that several minor record companies issued on LP (such as Bongiovanni, Phorion and Penzance). On the Tahra label, Erik Then-Bergh recorded it with Rafael Kubelik

Rafael Kubelík

Rafael Jeroným Kubelík was a Czech conductor and composer.-Early life:Kubelík was born in Býchory, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary, today's Czech Republic. He was the sixth child of the Bohemian violinist Jan Kubelík, whom the younger Kubelík described as "a kind of god to me." His mother was a Hungarian...

 and Orchestre Symphonique de la Radio Bavaroise.

16.7.2004 Essen
Wilhelm Furtwängler: Sinfonisches Konzert für
Klavier und Orchester
Gerhard Oppitz (Klavier), Essener Philharmoniker,
Leitung: Stefan Soltesz
Location: Alfried Krupp Saal

31 Mar 2004
20:00 University
Monterrey (Mexico)
Walter Prossnitz, piano
Monterrey Symphony
Felix Carrasco

Felix Carrasco

Félix Carrasco - Córdova is a Mexican-Austrian conductor. He has performed successfully near a hundred different orchestras around the world and has gained international recognition for his extraordinary performances. His style in conducting has impressed for sensitivity and accurate...

 (conductor)
Furtwängler, Symphonic Concerto in b minor

01 Apr 2004
20:00
University
Monterrey (Mexico)
Walter Prossnitz, piano
Monterrey Symphony
Felix Carrasco

Felix Carrasco

Félix Carrasco - Córdova is a Mexican-Austrian conductor. He has performed successfully near a hundred different orchestras around the world and has gained international recognition for his extraordinary performances. His style in conducting has impressed for sensitivity and accurate...

(conductor)
Furtwängler, Symphonic Concerto in b minor

A 19 January 1939 performance of Furtwangler's Symphonic Concerto was also released in 1988 on the PILZ label (CD 78 004) with the composer conducting the Berlin PO and with Edwin Fischer as the soloist.