Concerto Fantastique

Concerto Fantastique is an orchestral composition in four movements by the American composer Ralph Shapey. The work was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, who first performed the work under the composer on November 21, 1991. It was a finalist for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Concerto Fantastique has a duration of roughly one hour and is composed in four movements:

The first movement, "Variations," is dedicated to the University of Chicago, at which Shapey was on faculty from the mid-1960s until his retirement in 1991. The second movement, "Elegy," is dedicated to the late Chicago-based philanthropist Paul Fromm. The last two movements, "Intermezzo" and "Rondo," are both dedicated to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Shapey described the composition process, remarking, "I started out to write a concerto, but as I was writing the piece it became more and more obvious that this was not just a concerto. That is how Fantastique came to be added to the title. I wrote the piece for a virtuoso orchestra and virtuoso players. The second, third and fourth movements come directly out of the first. Each movement is complete within itself, but you can also regard the entire work as a great big sonata-allegro form."

Concerto Fantastique received a mixed response from the audience at its world premiere. Wynne Delacoma of the Chicago Sun-Times observed, "The hall was full at the start of the evening, probably because Alfred Brendel was opening the program with Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 2. A portion of the audience didn't return from intermission to hear Shapey conduct his own work, and more left in the pauses between the four movements." The music critic John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune similarly wrote, "There was a noticeable exodus of audience members between movements of Shapey's hourlong work and scattered boos at the end." Despite this, Rhein added, "But the applause was considerable, and Chicago's most eminent composer, back in front of the CSO after 22 years, clearly savored the moment."

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