"Playful Passion" Piano Concerto No.1 by Dirk Tomandl (*1965)

"Playful Passion" Piano Concerto No.1 (2021) by @DirkTomandl (*1965).
Performed by Xander Benham and his Project Chamber Orchestra conducted by Alejandro Cantalapiedra.
Audio by Harold Bergsma.
www.haroldbergsma.nl/
Video by Felipe Pipi from THZ Studios.
Recorded on July 9 2022 @heronroadstudios1793 Studios in The Netherlands.
If an orchestra is interested in performing it they should reach out directly to Xander Benham or Dirk Tomandl.
www.dirktomandl.com/
/ @dirktomandl
www.xanderbenham.com/
/ @xanderbenhampianistco...
This PianoConcerto tells the journey of love from its gentle beginnings of getting to know each other, a lot of moving forward and shying back, falling in love, the waves of getting close, passion, and slowing down, drama, until the epic climax and closure.
The composition is romantic but does not attempt to imitate the romantic era and does not follow the traditional sonata form. It is in one movement, tonal, and (hopefully) enjoyable. Harmonically it uses a lot of jazz harmonies and lesser common chord progressions. It avoids romantic era cliches such as lengthy show-off cadenzas. In its form it is perhaps closer to an extended pop song in ABA'B'A''B'' with many variations, bridges, and additional themes C, and D. In the first half, I used variations instead of extended developments that move far away from the original themes in order to tell the story of slowly, cautiously getting to know each other and the stop-and-go that comes with building trust.
The music is warm, melodic, sensual, emotional, loving, gentle, dramatic, intense, storytelling, visual, playful, passionate, virtuosic, and has a lot of dialog between the various instruments. It is inspired by a short, lesser known melody written by Freddie Mercury.
Close your eyes and let the music guide you through an intimate journey of love and passion 😉
The piece is set for flute, clarinet, bassoon, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, timpani, strings, and piano. The reduced instrumentation is intended to create a cleaner, more transparent, modern sound.
Your pianist and composer,
Xander Benham.

[@DirkTomandl]

Thanks, Xander, Anna, Alejandro, Harold and everybody else making a dream come true!

[@AbdulazizShabakouh]

Beautiful!

[@tijmenbergsma6096]

An absolute masterpiece. And the audio quality is insane!