Concerto in C for Piano and Symphonic Wind Orchestra

A lot is known about the American composer Leroy Anderson. This son of Swedish immigrants played the piano, organ, accordion, trombone, tuba and double bass. He spoke several languages fluently and graduated from Harvard with first-class honours.While on military service, the army also commissioned him to write a manual on Icelandic grammar.He already started writing musical arrangements as a student, and from his 30th year arranged and composed for the Boston Pops Orchestra. Such melodiesas "Serenata", "The Typewriter", "Sleigh Ride" and "Bugler�s Holiday" made him world famous. His best-known work, "Blue Tango", reached number one in the US charts in 1952, and it sold more than a million copies. In 1975, a year after hisdeath, he was given a star at the "Walk of Fame" in Hollywood.Most of his works last no longer than three minutes, about the maximum length of a single at that time. One work that lasts longer is his 1953 Piano Concerto in C for piano and orchestra.The first performance was in Chicago, conducted by the composer and with Eugene List at the piano. However, after three performances he was no longer happy with the work and withdrew it. He always intended to revise it, but never got round to it. Itwas only in 1989 that the Anderson family decided to republish the work.This three-part composition is on the one hand characterised by a careless elegance, but on the other one can hear the influence of Rachmaninoff, Copland, Gershwin, and evenBeethoven and Mozart, as well as the Viennese classics.Anderson used the sonata form for the first movement. It ends with a cadenza that carries us on into the second part (in e minor). The third part is a typically cheerful American folk dance in2/4 time, a so-called "Hoe Down", with a lilting, lyrical passage as its middle section. At the end comes a solo passage followed by a rapid close.In this piano concerto, Anderson combines a rigidly classical form of composition with simple andappealing themes and elements from light music. So this work is a perfect synthesis of light music and what is called serious music, in the same way as Gershwin�s "Rhapsody in Blue". A work that can be played equally well in a concerthall, at an open-air concert or even a pop concert.