Piano Concerto No. 1
composer: Nancy Galbraith (1993)
genre: piano concerto with chamber orchestra
length: 1 movements, 33:00 minutes
orchestration: piano; 2fl(pic), 2ob, 2cl, 2bn;
2tpt, 2tbn, 2hn, tba; perc; strings
publisher: Subito Music Publishing (ASCAP)
60 Depot Street, Verona, NJ 07044
mail@subitomusic.com • 973-857-3440
audio/video:   

world premiere: 22 October 1994
Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic OrchestraJuan Pablo Izquierdo, conductor
Ralph Zitterbart, piano • Carnegie Music Hall; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
program notes: "Piano Concerto No. 1" combines both spiritual and worldly influences, making use of lively rhythms, repeated patterns, tonal melodies, and pandiatonic harmonies that combine to create a distinctly American style.
composer's note: "After a quiet introduction by the orchestra, the first movement unfolds as a piano solo with sensuous rhythmic pulses in the accompanying strings. Throughout the development of this movement, the piano frequently combines with the percussion and winds to form lush exotic textures. It ends in an ethereal aura created by a high string tremolo that moves attaca into the eerie introduction of the second movement. The second movement evolves into a slow lyrical piano cadenza, and ends in a meditative and unearthly atmosphere created by the piano and orchestra. The third movement explodes with an even stronger rhythmic pulse than the first and then, for a time, uses the orchestra as a foreground voice while the piano accompanies with textural rhythms. Eventually the piano returns to state the final musical ideas and, after a driving cadenza accented with percussion, the work closes with a fortissimo tutti. —N.G.
press bytes: "A formidable work for piano in three movements, this is an equally virtuoso piece for orchestra, and a welcome addition to the concerto literature of this century."
Cincinnati Inquirer
  "A wonderful work" — American Record Guide
recordings: New Energy From the Americas
Ocean Records • 1996 • OR 101
Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra • Keith Lockhart, conductor
Ralph Zitterbart, piano
source: nancygalbraith.com