Concerto for Piano and Orchestra

While Moszkowski's Second Piano Concerto op. 59, created in 1898, is widely known and repeatedly recorded, his FIRST PIANO CONCERTO, composed in his early years, has remained forgotten for a long time. After its 1874 initial performance on two pianos in partnership with Liszt, the work never came out in print and was believed to be lost. It was not until 2011 that the manuscript of the work was accidentally discovered in a Paris library and published in 2013 following extensive reconstruction process carried out by pianist Ludmil Angelov. The world premiere of the concerto took place on 9 January 2014 at the National Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw, performed by Ludmil Angelov with the Rzeszów Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Kiradjiev. The same year, the pair made the concerto's first recording with the Baltic Philharmonic in Gdansk, followed by another recording released in 2016 made with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra for the English label Hyperion Records. In his Piano Concerto Op. 3 (just like in his Second Piano Concerto), Moszkowski does not follow the traditional three-movement structure which was accepted for this genre, managing to construct an impressive four-movement format, resembling the symphonic cycle. The work is approximately fifty minutes of duration and is pervaded by typically Romantic profusion of contrasting emotional states – expressive dynamics in the first movement; agitated, melancholically poetic music in the second; and a vigorous, vital scherzo bringing together genre nuances and dramatic pathos in the finale. The piano part, saturated with virtuosity, runs in a continuous organic dialogue with the symphonically expanded orchestra in this large-scale score.