BL: The Concerto dates from 1966. It was written for Gary Graffman. We had worked together two years previously on the Fourth Piano Sonata, which I wrote on a Ford Foundation Grant. In those days the foundation was very active in getting performers and composers together and commissioning works. So we decided to do a Concerto. By chance a letter arrived from Eric Leinsdorf, then Music Director of the Boston Symphony, on another matter and when I mentioned in my reply that I was doing a Concerto for Gary, Leinsdorf said he wanted to do the première.