Name: Piano Concerto #1
In 1972, Hidas wrote his first Piano Concerto for the young pianist Andras Schiff, who also played the premiere of the piece with symphony orchestra.
Schiff performed the piece many more times, and the Hungarian pianist Erika Lutz also added it to her solo repertory.
In 2002, Hidas created a wind orchestra version, so that the Piano Concerto would become popular once again. This version with wind orchestra is as challenging as any major piano concert in the symphonic repertory. The first movement (Allegretto) starts with an orchestral tutti followed by unison sixteenth notes played by the piano, which are lyrically accompanied by the low brass. After solo passages with short motif or imitational injections from the orchestra, there is a short pause. In a sirnilar fashion, the movement continues in a varied and developing way, and the first big cadenza for the piano begins in measure 100.
Following the cadenza, like a repetition, is another Allegretto, although this time more densely orchestrated and rhythmically more active, which leads to the movement's romantic end.
The second movement (Andante) starts with a song-like solo in the English hom and modern hannonies. In the following Parlando, the piano enters with a simple, emotional phrase. The woodwind instruments start twice; the third time the piano is interrupted by the brass, before the solo in expressive Parlando continues. The English hom retums, and the movement dies away in a decrescendo. The listener is remotely reminded of Bartok's or Gershwin's piano concert.
The third movement (Sostenuto) follows attacca. At first the piano performed along a string of eighth-notes in 5/8 meter. A rhythmically oriented, impulsive interplay develops between the solo and tutti orchestra with many changing uneven meters. A long lyrical phrase in the high woodwinds is contrasted with wild sixteenth-note running in the piano, reminiscent of the first movement. The Piano Concerto comes to a dramatic end with wild rhythms. This piece · offers the symphonic wind orchestra the possibility of playing a substantial piano concerto in large format.
