Piano Concerto n.1

Commissioned by the internationally acclaimed greek pianist Erato Alakiozidou, “Piano Concerto No.1, In the Absence of Gods and Demons” sheds light on the centuries-old tradition of concertos for piano and orchestra. Everything is reduced to a single movement. The orchestra is reduced to a quartet and the musical gestures of the piano create evanescent sounds fading into the atmosphere of chamber music.

The work stands out in a continuous dichotomy between light and darkness. This music is on one hand a meditation and on the other hand a disillusioned surrender whereas a contemplation on the human opens up, in the absence of what we have called “gods” or “demons”. Halfway between the opposites, between high and low, there is the human effort to remain standing on the earth. These melodic shreds attempt to preserve and protect a certain type of beauty, surrounded by bitter dissonances and sonic disorientations.

The structure of the piece was conceived in opposite form, writing from end to beginning using the cadenza as a moment of synthesis and evocation of a beginning that did yet not exist to proceed by composing backwards. The piano has in fact the role of a shaman capable of predicting the future, of anticipating new thematic groups, of having a vision of the possible end. This “hinged” structure made it possible to work in a different way on the structural and motivic connection, allowing to descend continuously from the macrocosmos to the microcosmos, filling the apparently ornamental details with anticipations and memories. The compound oasis evokes an ancient beauty which remains disoriented in a disenchanted scenario.