Some corrections to an older post. I just received both the piano version and the orchestral score of the Lebedev concerto (you can order them from Hofmeister in Germany, look for Alexej Lebedjew, different spelling). The title page says that is has been revised in 1980 (presumably by the composer, no arranger/editor is listed, and Hofmeister is a high-brow publisher who would list such details). The copyright date is 1999, and the scores look like they have been very carefully engraved, probably even computer typeset, so the copyright date is probably when they made new plates. By the way, the tuba solo is very readable and cleanly typeset, unlike the Ostrander version.
ralphbsz wrote:The Lebedev concerto has been discussed here a few times; it seems to have actually been written for tuba solo and wind band, with the composer making a piano reduction of the band part.
Incorrect. Even though Mr. Lebedev seems to have been in charge of bands at the Moscow conservatory, the concerto is scored for traditional orchestra: Normal strings, two flutes, two oboes (second one doubling english horn), two clarinets and no bass clarinet, two bassoons and no contrabassoon, four horns, two trumpets, no trombones and no tuba (other than the soloist, ha ha), timpani, and a pretty prominent harp. The scoring is not super-heavy; it's not like a Rachmaninoff or Shostakovich symphony, more like a Gliere or Prokofiev concerto. Note the prominent absence of low woodwinds and brass, for the obvious reason of making the soloist stand out more. The double basses usually just follow the cellos, sometimes in a simplified version.
I'm by no means an expert in orchestration (and I've never been an orchestra musician, being a piano player only), but the score looks to me to be a competent, perhaps unimaginative orchestration, the typical accompaniment for a concerto.
Given that the piano part is very "pianistic" (it feels to me like "Rachmaninoff light", just up my alley), I suspect that Lebedev either had help from an experienced pianist of the Russian school when making the piano version, or that the piano part was written first, and he later orchestrated it for band.
Actually, the orchestration looks just normal. The reason the piano reduction is "pianistic" is that it doesn't always follow the orchestral score very closely; some of the broken chords, Chopin-esque left-hand arpeggios and "3-hand chords" in the piano version are not actually there in the orchestral score. I think what happened is that Lebedev produced both a nice orchestral score, and a nice piano version, by the expedient of not making the two slavishly follow each other.
Art posted a link to a performance of the band transcription (made by Joseph Spaniola, following the shortened Ostrander version). Still, I have not found any recording of the orchestra version. Not a big deal, it's just idle curiosity.