A piano symphony is a piece for solo piano in one or more movements. It is a symphonic genre by virtue of imitating orchestral tone colour, texture, and symphonic development.
An early piano symphony was written by Theodor Kullak and published in 1847.[1] French composer Charles-Valentin Alkan composed one, which was published in 1857. José Vianna da Motta wrote of it, "Alkan demonstrates his brilliant understanding of [symphonic] form in the first movement of the Symphony (the fourth Study [of his Op. 39]). ... The tonalities are so carefully calculated and developed that anyone listening to it can relate each note to an orchestral sound; and yet it is not just through the sonority that the orchestra is painted and becomes tangible, but equally through the style and the way that the polyphony is handled."[2]
Several decades later, Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji wrote his Third Piano Sonata (1922), which he described as a piano symphony.[3] Between the years 1938–1976, Sorabji wrote 6 piano symphonies.[4] Among these is also sometimes included his Piano Symphony No. 0 (1930–1931), which is the complete piano part of his otherwise unfinished 2nd Symphony for Orchestra.[4][5]
Niels Viggo Bentzon described his Partita for Piano, Op. 38 (1945), as a "symphony for solo piano".[6]
The composer John White's Piano Sonatina No. 8 (1961) consists of six movements, of which the fifth is called "Symphony in Five Movements".[6]
Haskel Small has also composed a piano symphony.[7]