Piano Concerto No.1 ‘Reminiscence of Spaces’ was composed in 1981, commissioned from NHK. For Ichiyanagi, it was his first concerto. He studied avant-garde music in the United States, and began composing with his own style which included his original concept, “music as a spatial art”, in the 1980s. This work was the first work which was written with this concept, and awarded the 30th Otaka Prize.

This work has three parts in one movement.

The first part (from one to 50 measures), Short melodic fragments appear and disappear in a disorderly manner. It expresses “multilayered spaces.” The piano part takes only a part of the whole resonance though this work is a Piano Concerto.

The second part consists of the first half (51 to 123 measures) and the second half (124 to 157 measures). In the first half, long melodies are played by each piano and orchestra, which express “two different spaces.” In the second half, they are gradually integrated into one melody.

The third part (158-428 measures) is suddenly started by a piano solo. The number of tuplets for the right hand in the piano part and the parts for different instruments repeatedly increase and decrease, while the five-tuplets for the left hand in the piano part is consistently played. It expresses “brewing the density of the time and space in music.” Finally the first part of this work appears again for a moment, and then the work ends.