Bohuslav Martinů - Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra

Composer: Bohuslav Martinů (8 December 1890 -- 28 August 1959)
Orchestra: Hannover Radio Philharmonic Orchestra
Conductor: Eiji Oue
Soloists: Aglika Genova (piano), Liuben Dimitrov (piano)
Year of recording: 2001

Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra, H. 292, written in 1943.

00:00 - I. Allegro non troppo
06:16 - II. Adagio
16:18 - III. Allegro

Martinů's brilliant and witty Concerto for Two Pianos belongs to a long list of his works unaccountably neglected in today's concert halls. Composed in 1943 during the composer's American period, the piece shares many of the same characteristics of the six great symphonies written at the same time: busy, syncopated rhythms; luminous orchestration; and soaring lyrical passages of great melodic breadth. The interplay between the two pianos is at times highly inventive, which can be seen if one follows the score in this video.

In a not very crowded field, this concerto certainly stands proudly beside those of Mozart, Poulenc, Piston, Gould, Badings, and Vaughan Williams among the sovereign works for two pianos and orchestra.

The composer himself wrote that "all my thoughts were constantly on my endangered country.... The work [was] written under terrible circumstances, but the emotions it voices are not those of despair but rather of revolt, courage, and unshakable faith in the future."

The Concerto was commissioned by Luboschutz and Nemenoff in 1942, the first performance was on 5 November 1943 in Philadelphia with Eugene Ormandy conducting.