View source for Concerto for Cello, Piano, and String Orchestra

{{Short description|1989 composition by Ralph Shapey}}
The '''Concerto for Cello, Piano, and String Orchestra''' is a composition for solo [[cello]], [[piano]], and a large [[string orchestra]] by the American composer [[Ralph Shapey]].  The work was composed for the cellist [[Joel Krosnick]] and the pianist [[Gilbert Kalish]] and was first performed at [[Tanglewood]] in 1989.  It was first performed by Krosnick, Kalish, and the Berkshire Music Chamber Orchestra under the composer on July 31, 1989.  The piece was a finalist for the 1990 [[Pulitzer Prize for Music]] and shared the top [[Kennedy Center Friedheim Award]] prize with [[William Kraft]] for ''Veils and Variations for Horn and Orchestra''.<ref>{{cite book |year=2010 |editor-last=Fischer |editor-first=Heinz Dietrich |title=The Pulitzer Prize Winners for Music: Composer Biographies, Premiere Programs and Jury Reports |publisher=[[Peter Lang (publisher)|Peter Lang]] |page=202 |isbn=3631596081}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Stearns |first=David |title=Obituary: Ralph Shapey |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=17 June 2002 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2002/jun/17/guardianobituaries.arts1 |accessdate=February 3, 2016}}</ref><ref name="Philly">{{cite web |last=Valdes |first=Lesley |title=Two Composers Share Top Friedheim Prize |work=[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]] |date=October 30, 1990 |url=http://articles.philly.com/1990-10-30/news/25895427_1_ralph-shapey-william-kraft-prize |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017061839/http://articles.philly.com/1990-10-30/news/25895427_1_ralph-shapey-william-kraft-prize |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 17, 2015 |accessdate=February 3, 2016}}</ref>
==Composition==
The concerto has a duration of roughly  minutes and is composed in three [[Movement (music)|movements]]:
#Prologue
#Psalm
#Rondo
==Reception==
[[Anthony Tommasini]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' called it a "visionary work" and wrote, "The score calls, crazily, for an orchestra of 48 strings. The concerto begins with an inexorable Prologue, which is followed by a subdued Psalm, almost Hebraic in its mysterious solemnity, and a fractured and exuberant Rondo."<ref>{{cite web |last=Tommasini |first=Anthony |authorlink=Anthony Tommasini |title=MUSIC; A Composer As Spiky As His Music |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=July 28, 2002 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/28/arts/music-a-composer-as-spiky-as-his-music.html |accessdate=February 3, 2016}}</ref>  Lesley Valdes of ''[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]'' was more critical of the work, however, remarking, "In the Concerto for Cello, Piano and Strings, Shapey has crafted a dense, lurching, argumentative piece whose motives mysteriously soften in its slow movement to form a psalm of some beauty—although its beauty seems self-conscious because atmospherically it emphatically suggests the woodland scene from [[Maurice Ravel|Ravel]]'s ''[[L'enfant et les sortilèges]]''."<ref name="Philly" />
==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}
[[Category:Compositions by Ralph Shapey]]
[[Category:1989 compositions]]
[[Category:Concertos for multiple instruments]]
{{PulitzerPrize Music Finalists 1980–1990}}
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