The piece
Grieg wrote his Concerto in A minor at twenty-four, during the summer of 1868 spent in Denmark; Edmund Neupert played the piano part at the first performance, in Copenhagen, in April 1869. It would be the only concerto he finished, and he kept revising it until the end of his life. Noctave offers its opening, the piano's entry and the theme, entered note by note from Vincent G. Stoks's arrangement for piano solo; an added A minor chord rounds it off.
A timpani roll, then the piano tumbles down the whole keyboard in chords and octaves, both hands at once: let the weight of your arm fall into each accent without stiffening your wrist. The theme that follows goes first to the orchestra, in short chords, then the piano takes it up alone. From bar 23, the left hand ripples in arpeggios of five or six notes to the beat under a held tune in the right hand: keep those groups supple and even.
