Anders Hillborg: Piano Concerto No. 2, ‘The MAX Concerto’ (2022/23)

Anders Hillborg (*1954)
Piano Concerto No. 2, ‘The MAX Concerto’, for solo piano and orchestra (2022/23)

Emanuel Ax, piano
San Francisco Symphony
Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor

World Première, 12 October 2023, Davies Symphony Hall


The subtitle of my Piano Concerto No.2 tells us that it was written for Emanuel – Manny – Ax. It suggests – with the power of ALL CAPS – the exuberance and geniality of this outstanding pianist.

The piece is roughly 22 minutes, and was commissioned for Emanuel Ax by the San Francisco Symphony with the generous support of John Kongsgaard. It reflects various interconnections between soloist, orchestra, commissioner, and myself. My relation with Esa-Pekka Salonen go back more than 40 years, he’s an invaluable partner in crime both as a composer, conductor and friend, and our discussions through the years have had a massive impact on my musical thinking.

Ax previously premiered, with Yo-Yo Ma, my Maggy in the Garden of Paradise (2020), an elegy for Maggy Kongsgaard; the renowned winemaking partnership of John and Maggy were dedicatees of my string quartet Kongsgaard Variations (2006), whose version for string orchestra received its first US performance from Esa-Pekka and the San Francisco Symphony in 2021.

Like my recent concertos for viola (2021) and cello (2020), my piano concerto is cast in one unbroken span comprising episodes of vivid contrast. ‘Grand piano’ opens the work with a flourish traversing almost the entire range of the keyboard; the orchestral woodwinds reply with their own leapfrogging arpeggios, before the piano states its jubilant theme. ‘Mist’ then settles in the form of divided strings. Out of the mist emerges a tinkling ‘Toy Piano’, which sees the soloist’s music-box shadowed by winds. The mists drift back in before ‘Chorales and echo chamber’, in which the accents in the quasi baroque texture in the piano are echoed in the woodwinds. All the while the piano spins a lyrical, melismatic line which builds to a glittering climax with crotales, bells, and glockenspiel.

’Toy Piano’ reappears from this tumult, before the opening figure of the piece ushers in ‘Hard Piano’, a toccata-like sequence of brilliant, jagged passagework that plunges into the work’s cadenza. As if encouraged by the virtuoso display, the orchestra joins the piano for a grand, passionate statement of the opening theme. Its energies dissipate into ‘Soft piano’, with fluttering piano arpeggios backlit by high, sustained strings, before the filigree melody figuration of ‘Chorales and echo chamber’ returns before the sweeping finale of ‘Ascending piano’: a final grand gesture from the soloist gives way to an ending that recedes into the distance.


Photo by Nadja Sjöström

Official Composer Website
http://www.hillborg.com/


This video has a purpose of promotion, not for profit.
If you have any complaints about copyright issues, please write me a direct message at dhdmlwls02(at)gmail(dot)com before submitting a report to YouTube. Then I will delete the video as soon as possible.