Edvard Grieg ： Unfinished Piano Concerto

This unfinished piano concerto by Grieg is characterized by the fact that its overall structure and the relationship between its movements cannot be established as they can in a completed work. The surviving material suggests an attempt to explore the concerto genre through the prominence of the solo piano, its dialogue with the orchestra, and contrasts between dramatic development and lyrical expression. Points of interest include the character of the themes revealed in the fragments and the exchanges between piano and orchestra. In performance, the work’s unfinished state should be kept in mind: rather than over-completing each passage, performers should carefully convey the direction of the phrases and changes in tone color.