Piano concerto in the works

Hi guys, although I'm an oldbie on these forums I haven't posted in about 4 years I think!

I'm working on a new piano concerto, and have never really attempted orchestral writing so am fairly new to it.

Please could you have a quick listen to what I've done, and give any feedback to steer me in the right direction!

http://www.jamiefrost.co.uk/music/pianoconcerto.mid (or see attached)

PIANOCO2.MID

I liked your main theme. (As a side note, it reminded me vaguely of a pop melody, but not in a bad way...very hummable.) I also liked your orchestration, but I kept waiting for some new, exciting instruments to enter. Do you intend to add more instruments to the score? You mentioned that you are not used to orchestral writing (I'm not either) so it may have been wise to keep your instrument count down. Either way, what you've written so far is harmonious and inspiring. It reminded me of some of my favorite classical compositions. My only complaint is that I felt a little overwhelmed by the almost constant, heavy string chords. But, then again, that may not be a bad thing. Great job overall.

Thanks for your comments, they're really helpful. Apologies for the strings, I'm having problems selecting anything other than GM sounds on my keyboard (I blame Vista, I never had the problem on my old computer!) so I can't get some nice orchestral strings rather than the horrible tinny strings currently there (although I'll thin out the strings a bit anyway.)

Here's the first part of the 2nd movement.

Comments appreciated :happy:

Sorry for midi-ness.

PIANOC2B.MID

Oh and some mp3s if people prefer:

http://www.jamiefrost.co.uk/music/pianoconcertoMvt1.mp3

http://www.jamiefrost.co.uk/music/pianoconcertoMvt2.mp3

Welcome back - good to see someone whose name I remember from the old version of the forum (even if I think I joined about the same time you left).

For someone who claims to be unfamiliar with orchestral writing, you're doing really well with the orchestration so far. As far as I can tell (from MIDI), everything is quite idiomatic for the instruments. Since this is really just the beginning, and there isn't even a second theme at this point, I'm going to have to reserve judgment on coloristic effects that might be brought into play later.

Only one possible criticism, and I'm not 100% sure about it given that I can't identify every instrument: at the end of the bassoon solo, you seem to be having the bassoon jump into the same register as the celli, while bringing in full string sections. While I'm not especially concerned with the bassoon being audible, it does have the tendency to blend with string instruments, so that bassoon solo WILL drop from prominence right about there. Could be worthwhile to change the cello part, perhaps transposing up an octave or even dropping it out entirely, to isolate the bassoon and keep it in the listener's ear.