The Piano Concerto was commissioned by Gerard Schwarz for Music Today and the Seattle Symphony Chamber Players. It is dedicated to Gerard Schwarz in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the American Music Center, and Schwarz gave the premiere – with Bell as the soloist – with Music Today in New York in 1989.

The Piano Concerto is in three movements of increasing tempo and brevity. The first movement, Lyrical and Majestic, contains two themes, one for the chamber orchestra of twelve players and one for the solo pianist. During a brief moment in the middle of the movement the orchestra shares the piano’s theme. The piano, however, begrudgingly recognizes the orchestra’s theme in an ironic role reversal at the end of the movement.

The second movement, Blues Theme with Variations, is based on an original melody. The popular Blues idiom permeates the set of classical variations. As in the first movement, a brief cadenza introduces a recapitulation of the main theme.

Dancelike and Driving, the third movement’s rhythm is rock influenced. Later the Blues Theme of the second movement reappears.

As the piece progresses, each movement not only gets faster and shorter, but the concertato texture diminishes; the piano ultimately plays with the orchestra and not against it.