Time, Tradition, Author: Artistic Concepts of the Piano Concerto by Alexey Krasheninnikov

Abstract

The article analyses the Piano Concerto by the St. Petersburg composer Alexey Krasheninnikov, performed as part of the 2nd Rachmaninoff International Competition for Pianists, Composers and Conductors in June 2025. The subject of the study is the artistic concept of the composition and the mechanisms of its implementation in the musical text. The study is focused on the three key concepts of Time, Tradition and Author, which are placed in the cultural and historical context of the “end of composers’ time” (Vladimir Martynov). The synthesis of these conceptual lines identifies the author’s central reflection: an understanding of the place and role of the composer in the contemporary world. Fundamental oppositions (personality — world; creator — clamour of everyday life, etc.) become instruments for researching two modes of human existence: external (interaction with reality) and internal (path to oneself). In the present article, the form of the concerto is interpreted as an image schema based on Krasheninnikov’s commentary and current research into “individual musical projects” from the perspective of cognitive science. The cognitive model is the visualisation of data on digital devices, coupled with the action of scrolling. Determining the tempo-rhythmic organisation of the work, the montage technique of “gaps” becomes a tool for realising this image schema. The analysis also focuses on the main themes of the concerto and the logic of dramatic development through the lens of the stated conceptual lines.

Keywords: music of the 21st century, Alexey Krasheninnikov, Sergei Rachmaninoff, piano concerto, conceptuality Time, tradition, image schema, scrolling