Ginastera, Concerto No.1

Cidade de Santos (São Paulo), 21 June 1981

An interview with pianist João Carlos Martins

Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 28 by the Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera. The work was commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation and was completed in 1961. It was first performed by the pianist João Carlos Martins and the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Howard Mitchell in Washington, D.C., on April 22, 1961.

"Foi em 60, quando a esposa do professor Kliass - o grande mestre de João Carlos - me levou à casa de Alberto Ginastera, em Buenos Aires. E aconteceu que o pianista cubano Jorge Bolet foi obrigado a cancelar a estréia mundial de um concerto para piano de Ginastera em Washington. Ai ele me disse: "Em um mês você aprende o meu concerto e toca de cor?" Claro, respondi. E assim fiz minha estréia nos Estados Unidos."

"It was in 1960, when the wife of Professor Kliass – João Carlos’s great mentor – took me to Alberto Ginastera’s house in Buenos Aires. It so happened that the Cuban pianist Jorge Bolet had been forced to cancel the world premiere of a piano concerto by Ginastera in Washington. So he said to me: ‘Can you learn my concerto and play it from memory in a month?’ ‘Of course,’ I replied. And that’s how I made my debut in the United States.”