Zaderatsky V. Children's Concerto No 2. Version for 2 pianos. Senior forms of children music school

Composer Vsevolod Petrovich Zaderatsky (1891–1953) graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1916, having studied with Sergei Taneyev, Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov and Carl Kipp. During the Soviet period of history, he was subjected to harsh repressions from the government. His outstanding heritage has begun to enter the cultural life of the contemporary world only since the 2000s. At the present time his compositions are performed in various cities in Russia and in various countries of all the world. Vsevolod Zaderatsky is presently recognized as a significant artistic figure of the first half of the 20th century.

The genres of piano music form the main constituent of the musical legacy of the composer, who was a superb pianist. However, the genre of the piano concerto appeared within the scope of his attention only in its rendition as a genre for children. The two children’s concertos, composed, respectively, in 1946 and 1948, pursued primarily pedagogical goals and were designed for the composer’s son, who at that time achieved the ages of 11 and 13 years old. Both concertos were envisaged by the composer to be studied by children of that age studying in the advanced classes of general music schools.

The genre of the children’s piano concerto is in a certain sense a special genre, to which composers do not turn so often. Its rendition may have various traits: the parameters of complexity (pertaining solely to its technical aspect) may fluctuate. Concertos for youth (for instance, the well-known works by Kabalevsky) and the children’s concertos proper of Berkovich present different guises of the genre. It is apparent that the concerto may present the first large-scale form presented for the mastery of the student. Moreover, it presents a form capable of encompass a maximal amount of textural formulas and purely pianistic goals (from cantilena to the finger and massive technique), and, most importantly, it is a form which fosters the skills of ensemble performance. The genre of the concerto, undoubtedly, is apt to take up a weightier position in the repertoires of children and young people. For this particular reason we turn your attention to the forgotten and the remarkably designed concertos of Zaderatsky. Both concertos are written in the key of A, the first — in A minor, and the second — in A major.

Unlike the First Concerto, which contains the composer’s original thematic material, the Second is written on Slavic folk themes. The present edition offers you particularly the Second Concerto, which consists of three movements (in A major, F-sharp minor and A major). The first movement is the most extended and complicated in its image-related content. Its thematic material is based for the most part on two folk songs: “Uzh kak po mostu-mostochku” [“Once on the Bridge, the Bridge”] and “Ya na kamushke sizhu” [“I am sitting on a little stone”] (presenting the subsidiary theme group). The themes of the concerto do not distort the song structure of the derived material. All the evolutional thematic elaboration is entrusted to the developmental sections, in which both themes appear at times in the most unusual and unexpected variants.