I: Moderato molto - allegro
	II: Largo assai
	III: Adagio ma non troppo - Allegro non troppo
	First Performance
	New York, April 1935; Norman Cazden (Soloist) with Marc Blitzstein (Piano reduction of score)
	First Complete Performance
	New York, January 1987, Michael Barrett (Piano) The Brooklyn Philharmonic conducted by Lukas Foss

Blitzstein's Piano Concerto represents the summation of what might be described as his "early period" . A serious and striking work, the 26 year old composer handles the large canvas with confidence and invention. And, at nearly 30 minutes duration, it is Blitzstein's most extended instrumental composition.

He began work on the piece in March of 1931. With the Piano Sonata of 1927 already under his belt, the Concerto was the next logical step for the pianist-composer to display his wares. His confidence in the work was apparent from the outset, describing it in a letter to Eva as "monstrous, it is so beautiful". Working sporadically on the piece through the summer, it was completed in November of that year, and dedicated to Arlene Erlanger, a patron.

Yet despite Blitzstein's confidence in the piece and the concerto's readily apparent merits, the opportunity for a premiere proved impossible to come by. Despite interest in the piece from Reiner (who described it as "one of the best and most expertly done works by an American" ), Goossens (who found it "stimulating . . . refreshing" ), and Stokowski (a rather dubious promise to play it through at a rehearsal), nobody wanted to take up the Concerto.

It was not until 1935 that a performance did take place, and then only in a two-piano version. With the composer playing the orchestral part, and Norman Cazden as soloist, it formed part of an all-Blitzstein Composer's Forum-Laboratory concert in New York on April 15th of that year. Also on the programme was the Piano Sonata (played by Blitzstein), the String Quartet and a movement from the Serenade for String Quartet (played by the Modern Art Quartet), and three songs, sung by Mordecai Bauman. Despite a favourable reception, the Concerto was then returned to the drawer where it was to languish for some fifty years.

Of course, by 1935, Blitzstein's political and musical allegiance was changing, and clearly the Concerto, seeming to be both "modernist" and "elitist" , no longer had any relevance to the path that Blitzstein was now forging for himself. It is, therefore, not surprising that the Concerto, along with other works from the late 20's and early 30's, held little interest for the composer, and fell into neglect.

Indeed, for the rest of his life, his attitude toward the Concerto remained ambivalent. When, in 1956, he was asked to select a programme of his works for a recorded compilation, his list of suggested works included the Concerto alongside the far better known REGINA and THE CRADLE WILL ROCK. Yet, an inquiry from his friend David Diamond only three years later in 1959 regarding a possible performance of the Concerto was met with a strongly negative reaction, and the assertion that he didn't want it done. And it remained undone until, almost exactly twenty two years after his death, it was finally performed in its full orchestral guise in New York in January 1986, with Michael Barratt as soloist accompanied by Lukas Foss and the Brooklyn Philharmonic (These same forces went on to record the work, follow this link for details). The warm critical reaction accorded to what is undoubtedly the finest work of his early period, justified Blitzstein's pride in his composition, even if it was fifty-five years late.

A standard symphony orchestra is used, from which Blitzstein omits all percussion instruments. Given the propensity for his music of that time to have a strongly percussive nature, this omission may seem surprising, yet the dry pungent textures and the music's angularity drive the Concerto with a surging rhythmic vitality.

Blitzstein himself described the concerto as following "the Nineteenth century model", but this is a concerto entirely born out of a Twentieth century sensibility. Like Britten and Copland, pianist-composers who also wrote their only piano concerto at the age of 26, and with whom Blitzstein shares many musical, political and personal characteristics, one senses a questioning of the role of the virtuoso concerto, and a struggle to find a new manner for the expression of virtuosity by the avoidance of vacuous display. Thus, Blitzstein's "Nineteenth century model" is clad in music of the age of steel, and in it a humanity seeking to come to terms with the impersonal brutality of the mechanical age. For the music, freely dissonant and written without key signature, is strongly tonal, with the outer movements being centred on F, and the central movement in the key of C. If the harmonic language is typical of American "modernist" works of the period, one finds in Blitzstein's writing a vocal grace and tenderness that ameliorates the harsher percussive moments.

It is ironic that the most mechanical instrument in his concerto should have the most delicate, heartfelt - and human - music, for the piano's role in this piece is more commentator than combatant. The piano writing is highly virtuosic, but it neither engages in mere display, nor attempts battle with the orchestra. Indeed, many of the work's key moments are given to the piano in isolation.

And it is in this isolation that the Concerto begins. One might almost say desolation, as the solo piano attempts to create coherence from its fragments of melody and rhythm (ex. 1).