Alan Rawsthorne (1905 - 1971) was a leading British composer of the generation that emerged just before the outbreak of World War II. His First Piano Concerto is a vigorous piece with the kind of brightness and clear, toccata-like piano writing that is found in Prokofiev's concertos.

It is a relatively short work, requiring about 18 or 19 minutes to perform. Although Rawsthorne was already 34 by the time the concerto was premiered, it is ranked as an early mature work; Rawsthorne began his musical career relatively late, not starting serious studies in music until he was 19. A Theme and Variations for two violins brought him his first important attention at its premiere in the London International Society of Contemporary Music Festival of 1938. This concerto was composed for the next ISCM Festival, in Warsaw, Poland, in 1939. It was first written for an orchestra comprising only strings and percussion in addition to the solo piano. It is considered the work that first fully contained the stylistic and formal attributes that were to remain consistent over much of Rawsthorne's career.

In 1942 Rawsthorne rescored the piece for full orchestra for a performance that year at the Proms Concerts, somehow combining his compositional career with military service.

The music is tonal, though it uses all 12 chromatic notes. Rawsthorne's main devices for admitting the full chromatic is to shift to a different scale at phrase breaks; often one phrase is in one key, and the next is in a key a major third higher. His chord motion often uses "false relations" (the sharpening or flattening of a single note around which the chord change takes place). This technique produces a characteristic sound that can be either humorously mysterious or emotionally disturbing.

The first movement is marked Capriccioso. Allegro molto—presto. The movement is rapid and flighty in mood. The very fast tempo (and its even faster concluding tempo) gives the shifts of key a sparkling quality. Rawsthorne neatly blends percussion and piano to produce a vivacious effect.

The most impressive movement is a Chaconne. The tempo is Andante con moto. The mood of the main theme is stately and elusive as the harmonies slide from one to another. The music becomes more complex, with active figurations, but at the very end of the movement the hushed mood of the opening of the movement recurs.

The finale is in the fast, leaping Italian dance rhythm called the tarantella, and is marked Vivace. As in the first movement, the brightness of the piano sound is made even more apparent by use of the xylophone. Although there are moments when the piano writing is powerful, most of the time it maintains a light dance feeling, with prominent wind writing. Near the end of the movement Rawsthorne unexpectedly quotes a well known Italian leftist political tune on trombones. This quiets the music, which ends very quickly with its exuberance suddenly quenched.

© Joseph Stevenson, All Music Guide