DESCRIPTION:
- Composer: Julius Engelbert Röntgen (9 May 1855 -- 13 September 1932)
- Orchestra: NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover
- Conductor: David Porcelijn
- Soloist: Matthias Kirschnereit
- Year of recording: 2008

Piano Concerto in D major, Op. 18, written in 1879.

00:00 - I. Allegro
15:13 - II. Larghetto espressivo
23:21 - III. Finale. Allegro con brio

Dutch-German composer Röntgen finished his second piano concerto during the summer months of 1879, one of the happiest phases in his life. Since January 1878 the young composer had been working at the music school of the Maatschappij tot bevordering der Toonkunst in Amsterdam. Although Amsterdam was not the most attractive European music capital, it was something, especially since Röntgen's career in Germany had developed only with difficulty. His prospects as a pianist and composer were not the best, and so his work in the city by the Amstel could have offered itself as an opportunity for his further career. Röntgen integrated himself well in Amsterdam. He made friendships with various musicians and also knew that his bachelor's life would come to an end in the foreseeable future. On 28 July 1880 he entered holy matrimony with Amanda Maier. He nevertheless continued to feel attracted to Leipzig. It was here that his family resided and that the heart of the music dearest to him did its beating. On 1 January 1879 he made his way to the New Year's Concert in the Gewandhaus in Leipzig especially for the purpose of performing at the premiere of Johannes Brahms's Violin Concerto. He had spent the previous day in the company of Brahms, Joseph Joachim, Edvard Grieg, and Elisabeth and Heinrich von Herzogenberg. This was familiar and friendly company, and the most passionate "Brahminen" did not hide the fact that their hope was set on the twenty-three-year-old Röntgen. With time he was supposed to inherit the torch from Clara Schumann and Brahms in the efforts to protect German music from the 'Zukunftsmusik' of the Weimar "Neudeutschene".

Röntgen had been working on his piano concerto since the beginning of September 1879. Every week a new movement was finished. The composer now merely needed to work out what he already had in his head. On 26 September he noted in his journal that he had just finished the instrumentation of the "Finale". This note was followed by an apt quotation from Lessing: "Every man may take pride in his diligence." Within a few weeks he also finished the version for two pianos, and then he presented the whole work in his Amsterdam circle. His friend Willem Kes, who had headed the just very recently founded Concertgebouw Orchestra since 1888, played the orchestral part on the second piano during this presentation.

The concerto's premiere was held in Leipzig on 27 October 1881. Julius Röntgen was the soloist, and his father Engelbert conducted the Gewandhaus Orchestra, with which he held the post of second concertmaster. On 30 September 1883 Line Röntgen, the composer's youngest sister, performed the concerto, and this time Carl Reinecke, the orchestra's conductor, led its presentation. Three months before the concerto had also been performed in Leiden and Amsterdam, where one had managed one's best with ad hoc ensembles with wind instrumentalists who played so uncleanly that no repetitions of the work had been requested. Röntgen played the concerto above all at his home on the Van Baerlestraat in Amsterdam. On New Year's Eve 1883 his guest Edvard Grieg had counted on this. On 20 February 1885 the work was heard again in the Park Hall in Amsterdam, accompanied by the Amsterdamsche Orkest-Vereeniging under the conductor Willes Kes. It then was forgotten...