D. Dentuti - Piano Concerto N. 1 [ORIGINAL COMPOSITION]

This is my third attempt at a piano concerto, which I've written between 5 September 2025 and 6 January 2026, yet it's the first one that I can actually call "finished". I've always been trying to write a piano concerto, and my first attempt at it goes back to when I was fifteen, therefore three years ago, when I didn't have the proper technique nor ideas to compose one.

The first movement, Allegro diabolico, whose devilish character is represented by the sudden time signature changes that occur almost every measure, had its sketches back in August 2025: I was commissioned a (now discarded) double piano concerto (hence the double piano part in this movement which I'm admittedly too lazy to compress into one, for now) and I wanted to opt for something creative yet traditional, rhythmical yet lyrical, percussive yet emotive in the most Neoromantic sense possible.

The second movement, Grave nostalgico, is the heart of the concerto. The energy accumulated in the first movement suspends itself in a soft and intimate lyrical moment where the piano becomes the protagonist, in contrast to the equal role it had with the orchestra in the previous movement. After its last climax, it collapses upon itself through a solo piano part that gradually dissolves into nothing but silence.

The third movement, Presto infernale, is a reframing of the first; not in material, not in form, not in orchestration, but in logic. It gradually arises in intensity, contrasted only by the short lyrical breaks, only to culminate, after a virtuosic piano cadenza, in a final tutti climax. It is heavily inspired by Italian folk rhythms and it is a hybrid between a March and a Tarantella.

(Special thanks to ‪@frederickbiddix4304‬ for rendering the video, lol)

Hope you enjoy!