Piano Concerto (1982)
(Concerto for Piano and Orchestra)

PIANO CONCERTO, 1982 (revised 2003 & 2024)

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 open-minded 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/Schirmer publication by Glynn Davies, to whom Edwards has expressed his deep gratitude.

Fred Watson