Concert Performances

Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments

Enjoy our April 2021 performance of Igor Stravinsky‘s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments, with conductor Leon Botstein and pianist Blair McMillen, which Stravinsky wrote in the early 1920s while living in France. In his notes on the piece, TŌN bass trombonist Jack E. Noble looks at why the composer chose the combination of piano and wind instruments for this concerto. “In an interview following the opening concerts Stravinsky expressed that ‘Strings and piano, a sound scraped and a sound struck, do not sound well together; piano and wind, sounds struck and blown, do.’ This is a noteworthy deviation from the norm which Stravinsky uses to highlight certain characteristics of sound. In particular, the percussive articulation of the piano stands out against the sustain of the winds.” You can read Jack’s full concert notes on the concerto by clicking here.