Simon Steen-Andersen's "Piano Concerto" played by piano soloist Rei Nakamura and the WDR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Wendeberg. Recorded live on 03.02.2024 in the WDR Funkhaus at Wallrafplatz.
Simon Steen-Andersen - Piano Concerto
Rei Nakamura, piano
SWR Experimentalstudio, sound design
WDR Symphony Orchestra
Michael Wendeberg, conductor
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○ Introduction to the work
A grand piano falls from a height of eight meters. The impact causes the instrument to burst and shatter. In Piano Concerto, this battered, almost completely destroyed instrument meets a perfect, classical concert grand piano. Like the grand piano, the soloist also has a double: in all previous performances, the soloist Nicolas Hodges sat on stage opposite his own video image, playing - with electronic assistance - both the damaged and the intact instrument.
Here, Rei Nakamura interprets the Piano Concerto for the first time and enters into a virtual dialog with the pianist of the world premiere. In the confrontation with the broken and out-of-tune piano, the concert grand and the symphony orchestra are placed in a different light. They initially stand in contrast to the resurrected instrument, then explore the expanded sound palette together, before finally surrendering to the delicate poetry and beauty of the imperfect. The work contains several small allusions to Ludwig van Beethoven, including a barely recognizable quotation from the Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major op. 101, which Beethoven composed when he was already almost deaf.
(Text: Patrick Hahn)