Phantasie Concertante for Piano and Orchestra in D Minor, Op. 48

Dora Pejačević (1885 – 1923) is one of the most talented female composers at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. She studied at the Croatian Music Institute in Zagreb then briefly in Dresden with Sherwood and in Munich with Courvoisier. For the most part, however, she was self-taught and developed her musical talents through contact with other artists and intellectuals, such as Karl Kraus. Her ancestral home was at Našice (near Osijek), but she also travelled extensively to Budapest, Munich, Prague and Vienna. After 1921 she lived mainly in Munich. Her works were performed most frequently outside Croatia; part of her Symphony, for example, was first given in Vienna (25 January 1918) and the complete work was performed later in Dresden. Her late Romantic idiom, enriched with Impressionist harmonies and lush orchestral colours, evolved as she strove to break free from drawing-room mannerisms and conventions... Phantasie Concertante Op. 48 (1919). This second work for piano and orchestra by Dora PejaËeviÊ can be ranked, by its originality, with her most successful compositions. Unlike the Piano Concerto which follows tradition and the great models for that genre, the Phantasie Concertante provides a new and untypical solution in which a high degree of integration of the thematic material and form is achieved. The title, Phantasie Concertante, is the key to identifying the composer’s creative intentions. The term “concertante” draws attention to the prominent role of the soloist, whose virtuoso part rises above the orchestra or enters into multiple and complex relationships with it. From the beginning of the independence of instrumental music in the 16th century right up until the present day i.e. in the most diverse historical contexts, the term fantasia, used as the title of a work which is particular, extraordinary and, to a great extent, free - both in formal disposition and in musical themes and motifs - represents a digression from the norm. In the case of the Phantasie Concertante, this is a digression from the strict sonata form and classical three-movement concerto. However, this does not mean that the work lacks organisation or that it is created as the result of completely free and improvised addition of musical material... (Koraljka Kos)