Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was written in 1984, when Ince was 24. It had preview performance that took place that fall with the composer as pianist and the Eastman Symphony Orchestra. It is a very important work for Ince, as it put him firmly on the new music map and propelled his career forward. After feeling obligated to be a part of the nationalistic movement of Turkish classical music (something Turkey was still going through in the late 1970’s), Ince moved to the US in 1980 and experimented with abstract languages (“allowed me to start with a clean slate”, he explains). It is with the Concerto for Piano and Orchestra four years later, with the influence of new romanticism and dramatic minimalism, that Ince started to mix twisted Turkish modal lines, tonal sonorities, noisal sonorities, minimalist backgrounds, purely percussive sections (Turkish or others), romantic tunes in blocks presented linearly, sometimes juxtaposed, in a nothing held-back fashion. It is the energy and particular electricity of these blocks that can make them so want each other says Ince, though they may be of extreme contrasts. Ince describes these blocks as having static, semi-static and moving characteristics. The love of extreme, simple and pure contrasts was the first ingredient to appear in Ince’s music after his move to the US. Through these contrasts he says he wanted to shake the audience, make them engage in what he is doing and to ultimately take sides. This has continued to date and is heard in various degrees in his music. Ince says the concerto is the best example of the wildness and electricity of the degree of contrasts he felt and loved in those years--the early years after Turkey, when the general contrasts presented by the two cultures were of extreme potency to him. The concerto is presented in one continuous motion, though there are three inner movements and a coda.
