NEW CONCERTO CONVERSATIONS

In 1968, the New York Times raised a discussion over the question: Is the Concerto dead? Journalists and critics responded: The concerto offers no avenue for creative exploration and hence must be discarded – The concerto is not attractive to the modern composer – The concerto is the dustiest relic of all. And what is the concerto like at present? This talk, whose title draws on Joseph Kerman’s monograph Concerto Conversations (1999), will address the issue of a 21st-century piano concerto, seeking connections between the model of a genre with a tradition of over 400 years and its newest representations. How do modern concertos look and sound? What new ideas do they bring? What meanings do they convey? Is the concerto really dead – or is it a vital genre, attracting composers’ attention and conveying important meanings?

Selected aspects of the generic space of the concerto will be discussed, including solo-tutti relationships, the issue of virtuosity, form and narrative qualities, as well as abstract and programmatic ideas, with a special focus on new ideas that expand the concerto's generic scope and our expectations of the genre. The meanings and most common topics inscribed in 21st-century concertos will also be addressed, illustrating how the concerto genre responds in lively ways to the surrounding reality, participates in the creation of recent culture, and reflects the experiences of the present day.

The talk will end by confronting the question Is the Concerto dead? with conclusions in relation to the present situation of the piano concerto in the view of the selected genre theories. Music examples will be taken from a collection of 21st-century piano concertos by foremost Polish composers, including Krzysztof Penderecki’s Piano Concerto ‘Resurrection’ (dedicated to the tragic events of 9.11.2001) and Wojciech Kilar’s (author of soundtrack for Dracula) Piano Concerto no. 2, as well as pieces written by the new generation of composers, such as a concerto for piano and computer (Sławomir Kupczak), concerto for a single pianist playing two instruments (Agata Zubel), or the concerto using a fishing net stretched over the piano (Aleksander Nowak).

Malwina Marciniak is a pianist and theorist, who holds a PhD in music theory for a dissertation on 21st-century piano concertos by Polish composers in the context of genre transformations and theories of musical narrative. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, Poland, where she teaches music theory and piano performance. Her research interests include contemporary instrumental music, piano literature, and new analytical methods, including semiotic and narratological theories.

Malwina is the author of a number of scholarly articles in reviewed music periodicals; she is also a speaker at national and international scientific conferences (Italy, Serbia, Spain, Portugal, the U.K. and U.S.A.). She has given guest lectures in music conservatories in Rome and Parma. As a pianist, Malwina is a multiple-time winner of international piano competitions and has performed at assorted venues in Poland and abroad. She joined the European Union Youth Orchestra tour, performing at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna and at the Bolzano Music Festival.

Malwina frequently undertakes interdisciplinary projects comprising theory and performance. She is a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at Temple University for the Spring Semester 2025-26.

This event is free and open to the public.