Tippett’s Piano Concerto - written between 1953 and 1955 - may be seen as both a mid-20th-century commentary upon, and a reaction against, the former heroic and percussive concerto types. Its initial inspiration came when Tippett heard Gieseking rehearse the first movement of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto for a concert in 1950. Tippett later wrote of the genesis of his own concerto: ‘Under the influence of an exceptionally poetic yet classical performance of the Beethoven movement, I found m...