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After over seven decades of working in Hollywood and becoming one of the most beloved film composers to ever live, John Williams is still finding new sounds and genres through which to share his music.
The 93-year-old composer recently shared his first-ever piano concerto for audiences at the Tanglewood Music Festival outside of Boston. The concerto, accompanied by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and led by Andris Nelsons, was performed by the celebrated pianist Emanuel Ax, to whom the piece was dedicated.
According to an interview by the New York Times, Williams had been planning to write a piano concerto as early as 2022. Ax read that interview and reached out to Williams in the hopes of becoming involved.
“I am afraid I took the bull by the horns,” said Ax in the Times.
Williams, for his part, agreed to have Ax be a part, and the two collaborated closely on the project over the past couple of years.
In spite of all that he has achieved in his career, including concertos on various other instruments, Williams admitted to being daunted by the idea of a piano concerto. “So much history of piano music,” he said in another interview with the Times. “So much in the history of music, piano, keyboard, digital, fingers — that anyone would be daunted, I think.”
The inspiration for the work comes less from the classical world and more from jazz. Three different jazz pianists – Art Tatum, Bill Evans, and Oscar Peterson – are all credited with direction in the concerto’s score. “You wouldn’t necessarily recognize any of these people just from the notes,” Ax is quoted as saying in the Times. “The only thing, I guess, that will recall them is that all three movements are quite difficult.”
Both the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic have plans to share John Williams’ Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in the coming seasons. A recording will also soon be released on the Deutsche Grammophon label.