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 myself persuaded that a contemporary concerto might be written, in which the piano is used once again for its poetic capabilities.' Apart from the self-acknowledged Beethovenian influences, the main influence on the musical language of the concerto, as Tippett himself acknowledges, was his own opera The Midsummer Marriage, which he had just finished. Instrumentation: piano and orchestra

Rachmaninow und Tschaikowsky mögen Pate gestanden haben, Lang Lang nahm es in sein Repertoire auf: das Klavierkonzert "Yellow River", mit brillant-virtuosem Solopart, Expressivität und Dramatik, Kontemplation, großem Pathos und Witz. Besetzung: Klavier und großes Orchester