"[5] Schnittke described the concerto in conversation with Alexander Ivashkin: I found the desired somnambulistic security in the approach to triteness in form and dynamics—and in the immediate avoidance of the same, [...] where everything—unable to create the balance between "sunshine" and "storm clouds"—shatters finally into a thousand pieces.
In the context of this work, banality did not imply connections to pop music, but to "a certain flow of monotonous rhythms [...], passive succession of repeated chords," and an overall feeling of "excess," particularly in dramatically vital moments.
Schnittke also described various points of the Concerto as sounding like "shadowy webs of polyphonic canons," "false burst of Prokofievian energy," "surrealistic shreds of sunrise from Orthodox church music," and a "blues nightmare".
[7] A solitary piano begins in a pensive mood, followed by note clusters, "grinding" unison passages and jazzy elements, among others, often coming as a surprise.
A reviewer noted: "Even in its most lyrical, expansive moments, there’s nothing pretty about Schnittke’s Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra, with its seasick microtonal lurches, pounding non-minimalist repetitions, and tortured baroque allusions".
[10] A 2008 recording combined the Concerto with piano music, played by Victoria Lyubitskaya with the Russian State Academy Symphonic Orchestra conducted by Mark Gorenstein.