Piano Concerto (Blitzstein)

Marc Blitzstein wrote his Piano Concerto for piano and orchestra in 1931 when he was 25 years old. The concerto was not performed in public during the composer's lifetime; the Brooklyn Philharmonic premiered the piece on January 1, 1986, 22 years after Blitzstein's death. Prior to the premiere, it had only been heard publicly twice, once in a two-piano version. Blitzstein had hoped to be the piano soloist at the concerto's premiere.
The concerto, 24 to 30 minutes in length, is dedicated to musical patron Alene Erlanger.

Form

The concerto has three movements:

Orchestration

The sheet music is published by Boosey & Hawkes. They list the orchestration as

Solo Piano
2 flutes + piccolo
2 oboes
2 clarinets
2 bassoons + contrabassoon
4 French horns
2 trumpets
2 trombones
Bass trombone
Tuba
Strings

Recording

A full recording of the work was made in 1988 by Michael Barrett with the Brooklyn Philharmonic under Lukas Foss. The first movement of the Piano Concerto was reissued on a CD titled Gay American Composers, vol. 2. An excerpt from the third movement was issued on a sampler titled “Lollapalooza USA,” issued by Boosey & Hawkes.