| Piano Concerto No. 1 | |
| Composer: | Einojuhani Rautavaara |
| Opus: | 45 |
| Composed: | 1969 |
| Movements: | 3 |
| Scoring: | Piano concerto |
Einojuhani Rautavaara wrote his Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 45, in 1969.
The piece contains many innovative uses of polytonality, cluster chords and extended uses of form.[1] It was during this time that Rautavaara had become disenchanted with the serialist and twelve-tone techniques of his previous works, and abandoned them in favor of a more idiosyncratic, romantic, and avant-garde style.[2]
The concerto is in three movements.
The first movement, Con grandezza, begins with a piano solo. For the first thirteen bars, there are octave clusters in the right hand, outlining a melody in E phrygian, and harmonizing with a D major/minor arpeggio in the left hand. The orchestra joins abruptly after, imitating the piano intro. The piano and orchestra bounce themes off of each other, before a large climax, where the pianist is instructed to slam their arm on the keyboard to simulate a 3-octave wide cluster chord.
The second movement starts with a C drone in the strings, and ends with more tone clusters that lead into the beginning of the next movement.
The third movement provides a strong climax with themes from the first movement, and a short French horn solo.