Anders Hillborg Piano Concerto No. 2
Emanuel Ax is the soloist in the piano concerto written for him. Ryan Bancroft conducts.
About the video
- Published online ??? 2026.
- Filmed 11 January 2024.
- The video is approximately 25 minutes.
Anders Hillborg’s Second Piano Concerto was written for Emanuel Ax. The title plays on the pianist’s name: among friends he is known as Manny, which, combined with the initial of his surname, becomes ‘MAX’.
The MAX Concerto is written as a single continuous movement, with sections bearing titles such as Grand Piano, Mist, Toy Piano and Chorales and Echo Chamber. Throughout, we hear Hillborg’s characteristic feel for orchestral colour and for sonorities that seem to emerge from and transform into one another. The interplay between piano and orchestra is central to the work. Rather than setting the soloist against the orchestra, Hillborg allows them to become part of the same ever-changing sound world.
The concerto was premiered in 2023 by Emanuel Ax and the San Francisco Symphony under Esa-Pekka Salonen. This film was recorded at the work’s European premiere, with Ax, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Ryan Bancroft.
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The music
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Anders Hillborg Piano Concerto No. 2
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Participants
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Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
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Ryan Bancroft conductor
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Emanuel Ax piano
