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| ORIGINAL WORKS: SOLO CONCERTS | |  |
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Johann Baptist Vanhal
(1739-1813)
Concert for Piano and Orchestra
A maj, op. 45, WIIa A1
edited by John F. and Virginia F. Strauss
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This pocket score has a
yellow cover
with black print. |
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| size of the pocket score: | 22,4 x 16,6 cm |
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| All trade prices without tax! |
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| Price of the pocket score: | No.22P/504 | EUR 10,90 |
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| From this work, we did'nt make the performing material! |
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| Price of the full size score: | No.22D/504 | EUR 23,26 |
| (size: A4, 29,7 x 21cm, 51 pages, spiral binding) |
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| If you are interested in the complete performance material of this work, please contact us. |
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The Concert for Fortepiano and Orchestra in A maj with its transparent texture and form represents Viennese Classicism at its most elegant. The theme groups are modularly constructed, and larger forms flow naturally from the classical harmonic structure. Although the forms are familiar, Vanhal's use of melodic and structural variation is inventive, often creating the illusion that the music is through-composed.
In his four-part string writing he uses a typical classical three-voice texture, frequently doubling the viola part an octave above the basso. He also favors the special color of the viola part doubling the melody an octave below the violino I. Sometimes the violins play in unison and the viola carries the middle voice, and occasionally the viola part is left tacet. Oboes and horns are used throughout the concerto, even in the second movement, to thicken the tutti texture, to articulate fanfare rhythms, to color melodic lines, and to sustain chords and pedal tones.
The solo keyboard part, despite scales in tenths and occasional octave passagework, is demanding, but not virtuosic. Although the inscription in the Hoffmeister edition suggests that the concerto may be performed on either fortepiano or harpsichord, and although the range and figuration can be supported by either instrument, the three part writing for the left hand and relative thick orchestral accompaniment suggest that a fortepiano with a sustaining pedal is the better choice.
The first movement Allegro is in classical concerto-sonata form. It consists of a double exposition, a simple development based on variations of the second theme, a condensed recapitulation followed by a fermata for a cadenza, and a brief coda.
The second movement Adagio in the sub-dominant key, is in sonata form with a simple twelve-bar development. The solo keyboard line contains extensive passages of expressive ornamentation. An unusual feature, emphasizing the underlying binary structure of the movement, are the two fermatas, one at the end of the exposition and the other at the end of the recapitulation.
The third movement, a Rondo alla Boëma is based on a melodically repetitious and harmonically simple dance theme in rounded binary form. Three episodes in the supporting keys of a min, D maj and E maj alternate with distinctive variations of the rondo theme. Vanhal provides written lead-ins to all but the last refrain, where he invites an extemporaneous lead-in with a fermata. The coda restates the rondo in its original form and concludes with Haydn-like humour.
According to Professor, the rondo, despite its title, does not contain any of the well-known rustic Bohemian themes typical of the period. In his correspondance with the editors, however, Chew drew attention to C.F.D. Schubart's comment in den Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (1784): "Was aber das Wichtigste ist, so bildeten sich die Boehmen einen ganz eigenen Geschmack in der Musik, der voller Anmut und Eigen-tümlichkeit ist, nur naehert er sich in etwas dem Komischen." (Most important, the Czechs have formed their very own taste in music, which is full of grace and originality, but also approaching the comic in some way.) The rondo subject might indeed be presented with comic affect.
Interestingly enough, German musicologist Arnold Schering mentioned Vanhal's A maj Concert in his History of the Instrumental Concerto (Geschichte des Instrumentalkonzerts, 1905) at a time when Vanhal's music had fallen into oblivion. Concentrating on the passionate, intimate and pious quality of the second movement, Schering also noted that Vanhal's style was far closer to Beethoven's than to Mozart's.
Almost a century later, we can also conclude that by its originality, expression, and the rondo's pronounced "national" character, Vanhal's piano concerto in A maj is an interesting counterpart to Mozart's master-works of the same period.
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Dr. Heinz Anderle is the scientific adviser of the music publisher Wolfgang Kiess. He is the promotor of the present series of works.
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| Piano Concert, A maj, Allegro, score | |  |
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