Alan Rawsthorne (1905 - 1971) was one of a rich generation of British composers who were born between 1900 and the outbreak of World War I. Like most of them, he wrote tonal music, but did not adopt the pastoral, folk song-like style of the generation earlier. Rawsthorne, particularly in the years after World War II when the twelve-tone system was sweeping the world of new music, found ways to integrate all 12 notes, usually by sliding frequently from the home key to a key located a major third below or above it.

This tendency is apparent from the outset of the Second Piano Concerto, which begins in a relaxed mood with a theme that slips out of and back into its main key in a manner reminiscent of Sergey Prokofiev.

The concerto was written for the Festival of Britain. This one-shot event was the biggest cultural event to be held in the British Isles for decades, and resulted in numerous important commissions. The idea was, six years after the end of the war, to show of how much England had recovered from the wartime destruction in London and other cities within range of the Luftwaffe and from the shortages of the postwar years. A highlight of the festival was the dedication of the new Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank of the Thames.

The BBC commissioned this particular work, which was premiered by the great pianist Clifford Curzon in the Royal Festival Hall. It is a full-scale piano concerto, about midway between 25 and 30 minutes in length.

The first movement (Allegro piacevole) opens with the main theme in the flute. Rather than using a standard allegro form, Rawsthorne mainly works out implications of the theme and its slippery harmonic structure. The theme proves emotionally adaptable. In a varied form with more dissonant harmonies (mostly achieved by mixing the two keys implied in its original version) it takes on a stressed, almost anguished character.

The second movement (Allegro molto) and the third movement (Adagio semplice) are played without an intervening pause, and can be analyzed as a single movement, a scherzo with a very slow contrasting central (or Trio) section. To this writer, it sounds more like a new movement. The Allegro molto is in a pronounced triple meter with a dotted rhythm figuring prominently. This skipping rhythm turns heavy and is driven later on in the movement. The music slows suddenly and turns gentle. After a period of time the fast, triple-meter theme of the scherzo returns, but articulated much more lightly and retaining the gentle mood of the Adagio. The music winds down quietly without returning to the boisterous mood of the scherzo.

The finale, Allegro, takes and extroverted motive that strikes the American ears of this writer like a Western movie theme. This round-up call on horn pervades the movement, mostly serving as the basis for some brilliant, high-spirited piano writing, but also serving well in a more pensive central section.

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