Bohuslav Martinů - Piano Concerto No. 3, H. 316

Bohuslav Martinů (1890 - 1959) - Piano Concerto No. 3, H. 316 (1948)

I. Allegro [0:00]
II. Andante poco moderato [8:40]
III. Moderato - Allegro [18:20]

Rudolf Firkušný, piano
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Libor Pešek (1993)

Bohuslav Martinů's Piano Concerto No. 3 is a work in three movements that typically lasts around 28 minutes.

"His friend Rudolf Firkušný had asked Martinů for a concerto in 1945, but it was not until 1947 that the composer set to work on his Piano Concerto No. 3, of which Rudolf Firkušný gave the first performance in Dallas, Texas, on 20 November 1949, with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Walter Hendl. The work harks back to classical-romantic concertos, invoking Beethoven and Brahms in particular, with certain passages exhibiting a characteristic Martinů twinge. The handsome second movement, marked Andante poco moderato, is an exquisite amalgam of Brahms and Martinů, with stylistic features, sounds and textures that are typical of some of the very best of both these composers. All in all, the work is a twentieth-century concerto that uses the best of the form’s earlier incarnations in a way that even the strongest opponents of modern music could find little about which to complain—a strong, delightful virtuosic tour de force."

(source: Naxos)