As we keep doing these reviews of concertos for two pianos and orchestra, I tend to see that this is actually a common concerto in the late Romantic period all the way through the twenty-first century. The main entry of this piano concerto is having one piano do striking C chords while the other piano does various courses around the C major tonal frame work. It is a spellbinding mix that makes this concerto fabulous. The piano is seen as a noble instrument in this concerto and many others that have been reviewed. The performance that is being revealed here is by the Montreal Piano Duo on Youtube. Go check them out. Just the two pianos in that tonality of C major in a fanfare type of setting is enough, but as I always like to do, the more instruments the better. The modern tones in chromatic mediants from C major toe E major and then to F major and working its way back to C major is fabulous. This glorious concerto was first composed between 1926 and 1931 as a single piano concerto with orchestra but one arranger wanted to arrange it for two pianos and for orchestra and did so in 1946. This was in part because the original piece gained the reputation of being too hard to perform with one piano technically.This is a reworking of William’s original intended idea. I love the whole tone scales that are used and the striking double chords all throughout the work.
Vaughan Williams is a British composer known for his whimsical and highly melodic passages. This piece doesn’t limit that character at all. The character of these melodies is highly broadened in this work. There are several points of consonants and dissonances that keep the audience in check and the piece in balance which is very important in the field of composition.
The piece often has these dissonant piano parts (i.e. perfect fourths are common; fifths are common; minor seconds are also there). Some of it is scary. There are very few “sweet” moments in the latter movements of the piece. The forte and double forte volumes are used extensively as if the composer was in a rage.
The final movement, three of three, is highly chromatic with the two pianos cycling through chromaticism in octaves with the higher strings echoing their percussive tirade. There are some moments of sweetness in the strings but often times, this is overlooked by the overall concoctive moodiness and muddiness of the two pianos. In the next cue, the French Horns glide in with a striking counterpoint melody that seems to suggest trouble. There are many times within the texture where the two pianos mish-mash together and collide like a massive car crash or train wreck. Highly technical glissandos and a few difficult trills serve to catapult the piece into further madness and uncharted territories. It is beautiful chaos at its best. Could this be movie music? I think so!
