The Piano Concerto was Peter Lieberson's first orchestral work and was, from the outset, conceived with Peter Serkin in mind as the soloist. He wrote it after a long period of immersion in the study of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism. Throughout what Lieberson regards as the "journey" of the Piano Concerto, the character of each movement changes dramatically, though the very tune that unfolds at the opening of the work returns in full just before the end. Each of the three movements reflects in a musical way the composer's "poetic vision" as based on the Buddhist principles of Heaven, Earth, and Man. The single movements are dominated by one or another of these principles, though each also has something of the qualities of the other two - part of the musical interlocking that ties all three movements together.