Piano Concerto

Written for pianist Neil Rutman-commissioned by the Astral Foundation. World Premiere: March 13, 1993. Neil Rutman, piano soloist, with the Erie Philharmonic conducted by Eiji Oue.

From the composer's description in the program booklet of the world premiere performance:

While the modern concert grand developed from the great 19th century works for piano, it is also a tool in many popular forms of music which have developed over the last fifty years. It is from this perspective that I hope to have found my own voice in the majestic form of the piano concerto, and from which I speak musically as well as pianistically. The various sonorities and techniques of rock and jazz piano that my generation takes for granted are as idiomatic to the instrument as the great 19th century vocabulary of sounds. It would be impossible for me to ignore the techniques of the 19th century piano, but combined with, and set against, the newer sounds, I believe there is still something to be expressed in this form. It is my hope that the listener will feel something nicely familiar in my concerto: both the familiarity of the traditional, and of the rich variety of popular musics surrounding us at the present time.