Hastings composer Polo Piatti releases his Bohemian Concerto

Recorded by American virtuoso pianist Thomas Pandolfi and the National Symphony Orchestra under conductor John Andrews, it is being released on the Seafront Records label – a piece of music of huge significance for Polo personally. It’s a about the life of the artist, and that artist is very much Hastings-based Polo himself.

“It's a concerto that I wrote basically for myself. It was not a commission and I usually work on commissions but with this one I wanted to write a piano concerto. I just never thought I would be ready and that everything I wanted to put into it meant that it would be so big that it would end up being two days long!

“But I concentrated on the idea of writing about the life of the artist, the ups and downs, the disappointing moments and the successes and that's what this concerto represents. I had the opportunity to have the premiere in the US in Virginia a couple years ago and the success was so great that I thought I should record it. The National Symphony Orchestra suggested that we do it in the Henry Wood Hall in London and we did it in June or July this year.”

The recording was a pleasure, particularly working with pianist Thomas Pandolfi and conductor John Andrews: “I don't perform any more myself. I'm very, very tired. I think at this stage in my career I have to concentrate on leaving a legacy of my work. In order to perform you have to be constantly practising, being on call, travelling, going in hotels, and I'm just tired. I've done that. My priority now is composition.”

And at a good time: “There is a movement growing to revive classical music as something accessible and something melodic and something that everybody can enjoy. Sometimes people think of classical music as being boring and elitist and difficult to understand and that's very wrong but I do think that there is a switch now happening in audiences. Audiences are tired of listening to avant garde music for the sake of it. They are wanting to listen to things that are good for the heart and good for the soul.

“I woke in the middle of the night with the main melody in my mind. It is a very pianistic work and I dreamt practically the first movement and the next day I started writing. You have to force things sometimes when you are commissioned for something that you don't necessarily want to do but you have to do because that's how you make your living, but this one came to me. And I just wanted to demonstrate what I think the piano can do. It's very difficult and it's very long. It's 42:19 minutes and I think the average would be something like 30 minutes but it's about everything in the life of an artist.

“It is very much about me. All of the sections have a meaning. There is an expression of the enthusiasm and then an expression of the disappointment and then an expression of the resurgence of enthusiasm. It shows the constant fight for five minutes of success… and for that success you have 23 hours and 55 minutes of fight! Every artist, no matter how successful they are, would say the same. You have to be waiting for something. You're waiting for the next concert and seeing what happens next, just worrying about where the money is coming from but now I'm more established I can more or less relax and that's why I have been able to do this.”