Piano Concerto

‘In 1979, I tried to realise my long-cherished wish to write a piano concerto for Vladimir Krainyev (who has the rare virtue of developing in a much more interesting and individual way than was originally assumed of him) - but I didn't succeed. I was forced to postpone the premiere. Only later did I find the desired somnambulistic certainty in approaching the banal in form and dynamics and in immediately avoiding it. But when I say somnambulistic, I also mean a certain gliding past of monotonous rhythms, the passive succession of repetitive chords, shadowy webs of polyphonic canons and surrealistic sunrise fragments of orthodox church music. There is also a false Prokofiev activity and a blues nightmare. Even the first, outwardly very active climax loses some of its real impact through its excessiveness. This is followed by the long solo cadenza and then the real climax, where everything is unable to create a balance between ‘sunshine’ and ‘stormy clouds’ and finally shatters into a thousand pieces. The coda consists of dreamlike, quiet memories of everything that has gone before. Only at the end does a new uncertainty emerge - perhaps not without hope?’ (Alfred Schnittke)

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