Piano Concerto (Schoenberg)

[4] The first UK performance was on 7 September 1945 at the BBC Proms with Kyla Greenbaum (piano) conducted by Basil Cameron.

[5][6] The first German performance took place at the Darmstadt Summer School on 17 July 1948 with Peter Stadlen as the soloist.

[9] In order to aid Oscar Levant, for whom the Piano Concerto was originally composed, Schoenberg provided what he called "a few explanatory essays":[10] Life was so easy Suddenly hatred broke out A grave situation was created But life goes on[11] Although this program was not included in the published score, Schoenberg told his student Marion Bauer that "for sometime [sic] I have not been against program music".

[13] The concerto has been compared with the music of Johannes Brahms by Mitsuko Uchida,[14] Sabine Feisst[15] and AllMusic.

[18] Mitsuko Uchida,[19] describing the work as very difficult for the pianist, points out that Schoenberg did not play the piano very well and that he "had no intention of writing effectively, or comfortably" for the instrument.