Ross Edwards
Piano Concerto
(1982, rev. 2003 & 2024)
Wise Music G. Schirmer Australia Pty Ltd
Sydney, NSW
Instrumentation:
Piccolo
2 Flutes
2 Oboes
Cor Anglais
2 Clarinets in A
Bass Clarinet
2 Bassoons
4 Horns in F
3 Trumpets in C
2 Tenor Trombones
Bass Trombone
Tuba
Percussion 1: Glockenspiel, Small Suspended Cymbal, Large Tam-Tam
Percussion 2: 5 Single-headed Tom-Toms tuned:
Small Tambourine, Bass Drum
Solo Piano
1st Violin
2nd Violin
Viola
Violoncello Contrabass
The Full Score is notated in Concert Pitch
Duration: circa 21 minutes
If this work is to be performed publicly as a live concert, permission must be secured from the local Performing Right Association. In Australian and New Zealand, contact Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) Locked Bag 5000 Strawberry Hills NSW 2012
Tel: +61 2 9935 7900
Email: apra@apra.com.au
If this work is to be streamed, synchronised or performed publicly as an opera, ballet or theatrical dramatico-musical performance, a grand rights and/or synchronisation licence must be secured from Wise Music G Schirmer Australia Pty Ltd.
Tel: +61 2 8252 6200
Email: classical@wisemusic.com
Enquiries about hire of orchestral materials should be directed to Kim Ransley, Managing Director, Origin Theatrical Tel: +61 2 8514 5201
Email: enquiries@originmusic.com.au
Typeset by Glynn Davies (2024)
Copyright © Wise Music G. Schirmer Australia Pty Ltd 1982 rev. 2003 International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorised reproduction of any part of this publication by any means including photocopying and scanning is an infringement of copyright.
Performance notes:
I. Allegro giocoso
II. Lento tranquillo
III. Animato
Ross Edwards’s Piano Concerto has a history of controversy. Initially rejected in the 1980s by orthodox modernists (notably at its London premiere in 1988), it has always been embraced by the public and, recently, by a new generation of openminded critics. Quirky, raucously exhilarating, at times almost nostalgically lyrical, it has always kept listeners on their toes and remains one of the most popular compositions by an Australian composer.
Edwards, who throughout the 1970s had been composing the austere and introspective musical contemplations that were to become known as his Sacred Series, spoke of his having been suddenly “taken over by an irresistible force” that confronted him with the natural world – “sunlight dancing on the water; gaudy, joyously shrieking parrots gyrating in the warm air” – a revelation that urgently needed to be transmitted through music. Today’s listeners are likely to accept the exuberant rhythms, colourful instrumentation and flagrant tonality, once considered a provocative stylistic volte-face, as simply an expression of the joy of living.
Composed in 1982 at Pearl Beach, a coastal village north of Sydney, Ross Edwards’s Piano Concerto was commissioned by the Australia Council. Dennis Hennig, to whom it is dedicated, was soloist in the 1983 premiere with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra conducted by Werner Andreas Albert. In 2003 Edwards was commissioned by Ars Musica Australis to revise the work especially for performances in Australia and Italy in 2004 by the Sydney Youth Orchestra conducted by Tom Woods with soloist Ian Munro. Twenty years later, a further updated edition of the score was prepared for Wise Music G. Schirmer Australia by Glynn Davies, to whom Edwards has expressed his deep gratitude.
Fred Watson