Concerto Grosso No. 1 (Bloch)
Encyclopedia
Concerto Grosso for String Orchestra with Piano Obbligato is a 1925 concerto grosso
composed by Ernest Bloch
.
The work was Bloch's first published concerto grosso of two. According to Alexander J. Morin, the work was created in response to complaints by Bloch's students at the Cleveland Institute of Music
about "the inadequacies of tonality
in shaping the music for the next century."
Music critic Olin Downes
wrote, "The Bloch concerto was on the whole the best written and the most effective of the new works, even though it lacks some of the power and color" of other works. A third concerto grosso evolved into his work Sinfonia Breve.
Concerto grosso
The concerto grosso is a form of baroque music in which the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists and full orchestra...
composed by Ernest Bloch
Ernest Bloch
Ernest Bloch was a Swiss-born American composer.-Life:Bloch was born in Geneva and began playing the violin at age 9. He began composing soon afterwards. He studied music at the conservatory in Brussels, where his teachers included the celebrated Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe...
.
The work was Bloch's first published concerto grosso of two. According to Alexander J. Morin, the work was created in response to complaints by Bloch's students at the Cleveland Institute of Music
Cleveland Institute of Music
The Cleveland Institute of Music is an independent music conservatory located in the University Circle district of Cleveland, Ohio, United States and is overseen by president Joel Smirnoff and Adrian Daly, dean....
about "the inadequacies of tonality
Tonality
Tonality is a system of music in which specific hierarchical pitch relationships are based on a key "center", or tonic. The term tonalité originated with Alexandre-Étienne Choron and was borrowed by François-Joseph Fétis in 1840...
in shaping the music for the next century."
Music critic Olin Downes
Olin Downes
Olin Downes was an American music critic.He studied piano, music theory, and music criticism in New York and Boston, and it was in those two cities that he made his career as a music critic—first with the Boston Post and then with the New York Times...
wrote, "The Bloch concerto was on the whole the best written and the most effective of the new works, even though it lacks some of the power and color" of other works. A third concerto grosso evolved into his work Sinfonia Breve.