Piano Concerto (Massenet)

The pianist Mark Hambourg remarked on Diémer's playing: "a dry-as-dust player with a hard rattling tone".

The second movement, in B major, is a slow, deliberate promenade featuring the piano prominently throughout.

Eventually the music comes to a restful reprise of the theme, and the movement ends quietly in a fading murmur.

The third movement, in C minor, is subtitled "Airs Slovaques", alluding to the ersatz Slovak-like dance tune Massenet uses throughout.

The concerto is scored for piano solo accompanied by an orchestra of typical size: piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, percussion (in the 3rd movement, including triangle, glockenspiel or celesta, bass drum, and strings.

The recording with Stephen Coombs and the BBC Orchestra was released on Volume 15 of "The Romantic Piano Concerto", on the Hyperion label.

Jules Massenet
Louis-Joseph Diémer, the dedicatee of this work
Opening bars of the solo part of the first movement, played over sustained chords in the strings
Opening bars of the second movement, played by the soloist alone
The primary "Airs Slovaques" theme, which provides the rhythmic and melodic impetus for the entire third movement