Solo concerto
Encyclopedia
A solo concerto is a concerto
in which a single soloist is accompanied by an orchestra
. It is the most frequent type of concerto. It originated in the Baroque Period (approximately 1600-1750) as an alternative to the traditional concertino
(solo group of instruments) in a concerto grosso
.
A typical concerto has three movement
s, traditionally fast, slow and lyrical, and fast. There are many examples of concertos that do not conform to this plan.
’s op. 6 of 1698. These works employ both a three-movement cycle and clear (if diminutive) ritornello
form, like that of the ripieno concerto
except that sections for the soloist and continuo separate the orchestral ritornellos. Active in Bologna, Torelli would have known of the operatic arias and the numerous sonatas and sinfonias for trumpet and strings produced in Bologna since the 1660s. He himself composed more than a dozen such works for trumpet, two dated in the early 1690s. Other early violin concertos are the four in Tomaso Albinoni
’s op. 2 (1700) and the six in Torelli’s important op. 8 (1709 - the other six works in this set are double concertos for two violins).
The most influential and prolific composer of concertos during the Baroque period was the Venetian Antonio Vivaldi
(1678–1741). In addition to his nearly 60 extant ripieno concertos, Vivaldi composed approximately 425 concertos for one or more soloists, including about 350 solo concertos (two-thirds for solo violin) and 45 double concertos (over half for two violins). Vivaldi’s concertos firmly establish the three-movement form as the norm. The virtuosity of the solo sections increases markedly, especially in the later works, and concurrently the texture becomes more homophonic.
Concertos for instruments other than violin began to appear early in the 18th century, including the oboe concertos of George Frideric Handel
and the numerous concertos for flute, oboe, bassoon, cello, and other instruments by Vivaldi. The earliest organ concertos can probably be credited to Handel (16 concertos, ca. 1735-51), the earliest harpsichord concertos to Johann Sebastian Bach
(14 concertos for one to four harpsichords, ca. 1735-40). In the latter case, all but probably one of the concertos are arrangements of existing works, though Bach had already approached the idea of a harpsichord concerto before 1721 in the Brandenburg Concerto no. 5.
period brought the triumph of the solo concerto over the group or multiple concerto, assisted by the continued rise of the virtuoso soloist and the growing demand for up-to-date works for performance by amateurs. The former trend appears most obviously in the large number of violin concertos written by violinists for their own use.
The Classical period also witnessed the rise of the keyboard concerto. Until about 1770, the preferred stringed keyboard instrument was usually the harpsichord
, but it was gradually supplanted by the piano
. The most important composers of keyboard concertos before Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
were Bach’s sons. Vienna saw the production of many keyboard concertos. The last decades of the 18th century brought the rise of traveling piano virtuosos.
The concertos of this period show a broad transition from Baroque to Classical style, though many are more conservative than contemporaneous symphonies. Most are in three movements, though a significant minority adopt lighter two-movement patterns such as Allegro-Minuet and Allegro-Rondo. Dance and rondo finales are also frequent in three-movement concertos.
Joseph Haydn
’s concertos are mostly from his early career. Exceptions are the Piano Concerto in D
, the Cello Concerto in D
, and the Trumpet Concerto
.
Of Mozart’s 23 original piano concertos, 17 date from his Viennese period. They are the crowning achievement of the concerto in the 18th century. Most of the works he wrote for Vienna are of a type that Mozart called grand concertos. These were intended for performance at his own subscription concerts, which were held in sizeable halls. They call for an orchestra that is much larger than a typical concerto of the time, especially in the expanded role assigned to the winds. The orchestra is rendered fully capable of sustaining a dramatic confrontation with the virtuosity and individuality of the soloist. Mozart’s approach in these concertos is often clearly symphonic, both in the application of formal symphonic principles, and in a Haydnesque interest in thematic unity in the later concertos. The range of styles and expression is greater than that of most other concertos of the period, from the comic-opera elements of K.467 to the Italianate lyricism of K.488, the tragic character of K.466 and 491 to the Beethovenian heroism of K.503.
Ludwig van Beethoven
’s five piano concertos date from between about 1793 and 1809, (there is an early work from 1784). They are longer than Mozart's concertos, and call for even more virtuosity from the soloist. Beethoven’s Violin Concerto
(1806) exhibits similar achievements - Mozart’s five violin concertos are all early works written in Salzburg in 1775.
concertos include Mendelssohn
’s two piano concertos (1831–37) and his important Violin Concerto
(1844) and Schumann
's concertos for piano
(1845), cello
(1850), and violin
(1853). The form of these works is predominantly in the Classical three-movements. Later works in this mould include examples by Johannes Brahms
(two for piano - No. 1
from 1858 and No. 2
from 1878 which adds a fourth movement - and one for violin
of 1878), Edvard Grieg
(piano
, 1868), Max Bruch
(most famously his Violin Concerto No. 1
, 1868), and Antonín Dvořák
(piano
, violin
, cello
, 1876–95). In France this tradition is represented primarily by Camille Saint-Saëns
(ten concertos for piano, violin, and cello, 1858–1902), in Russia by Anton Rubinstein
and Tchaikovsky (three piano concertos, one for violin, 1874–93).
A more overtly virtuosic trend appeared in the concertos of brilliant violinists in the 19th century including Louis Spohr
and Niccolò Paganini
and pianists Frédéric Chopin
(two concertos, 1829–30) and Franz Liszt
(two concertos, original versions 1839-49). The movement structure in most of these works is in the by-now conventional ritornello-sonata type perfected by Mozart and Beethoven. Liszt’s two concertos, however, are unconventional, in that the first concerto's five sections are connected both formally and thematically, and the second utilizes a still freer sectional structure. The first concerto in particular shows the influence of such continuous composite forms as those of Weber
’s Konzertstuck and Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy. The virtuosity required by all these concertos was facilitated by—and helped to spur—technical developments in the instruments themselves.
(four piano concertos, 1890–1926), Jean Sibelius
(violin
, 1903), Edward Elgar
(violin
1909-10, cello
1919), Carl Nielsen
(violin, flute, clarinet), Sergei Prokofiev
(five for piano, 1911–32; two for violin 1916-17 and 1935), William Walton
(viola, violin, cello), Dmitri Shostakovich
(two each for piano, violin, and cello), and Francis Poulenc
(organ). The virtuoso tradition mirrored in these concertos is also obvious, though in radically original guise, in the concertos of Béla Bartók
. Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Bartók were all piano virtuosos.
The composers of the Second Viennese School
also produced several prominent concertos: Alban Berg
’s Chamber Concerto for piano, violin, and 13 winds (1923–25), not fully serial
but incorporating many elements of Arnold Schoenberg
’s new system; Anton Webern
’s Concerto for nine instruments (1931–34), originally intended as a piano concerto; Berg’s important Violin Concerto (1935); and Schoenberg
’s own Violin Concerto (1935–36) and Piano Concerto (1942).
The neoclassical
movement of the period following World War I produced a long series of works that returned to pre-Romantic conceptions of the concerto. Igor Stravinsky
’s Concerto for Piano and Winds (1923–24) is in this idiom, but his subsequent concertos are more specifically neo-Baroque in character. His Violin Concerto (1931), for example, comprises a Toccata, two Arias, and a Capriccio, and the soloist is treated more as a member of the ensemble than as a virtuoso protagonist. The solo concertos of Paul Hindemith
(8 for various instruments, 1939–62) are more traditional than Stravinsky's in their treatment of the relationship between soloist and orchestra. Though hardly neoclassical in the usual sense, Richard Strauss
’ Horn Concerto no. 2 (1942, written some 60 years after his first) and Oboe Concerto (1945) also reach back to an earlier era, finding nostalgic inspiration in the wind concertos of Mozart.
A tendency related to the neoclassical rejection of Romantic and traditional features is the use of jazz elements in many 20th century concertos. George Gershwin
was a pioneer for such works, in for example his Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and Concerto in F for piano (1925) . Jazz is a source of inspiration for Aaron Copland
’s Piano Concerto in G (1929–31), Stravinsky’s Ebony Concerto for clarinet and jazz band (1945).
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
in which a single soloist is accompanied by an orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
. It is the most frequent type of concerto. It originated in the Baroque Period (approximately 1600-1750) as an alternative to the traditional concertino
Concertino (group)
A concertino is the smaller group of instruments in a concerto grosso. This is opposed to the ripieno which is the larger group contrasting with the concertino....
(solo group of instruments) in a concerto grosso
Concerto grosso
The concerto grosso is a form of baroque music in which the musical material is passed between a small group of soloists and full orchestra...
.
A typical concerto has three movement
Movement (music)
A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...
s, traditionally fast, slow and lyrical, and fast. There are many examples of concertos that do not conform to this plan.
Baroque
The earliest known solo concertos are nos. 6 and 12 of Giuseppe TorelliGiuseppe Torelli
Giuseppe Torelli was an Italian violist, violinist, teacher, and composer.Torelli is most remembered for his contributions to the development of the instrumental concerto Giuseppe Torelli (April 22, 1658 – February 8, 1709) was an Italian violist, violinist, teacher, and composer.Torelli is most...
’s op. 6 of 1698. These works employ both a three-movement cycle and clear (if diminutive) ritornello
Ritornello
A ritornello is a recurring passage in Baroque music for orchestra or chorus. The first or final movement of a solo concerto or aria may be in "ritornello form", in which the ritornello is the opening theme, always played by tutti, which returns in whole or in part and in different keys throughout...
form, like that of the ripieno concerto
Ripieno concerto
The ripieno concerto is a somewhat later type of Baroque music, the term concerto here reverting to its earlier meaning of work for an ensemble. The word ripieno is from the Italian for "padding". The concerto ripieno was sometimes referred to as a "concerto à quatre"...
except that sections for the soloist and continuo separate the orchestral ritornellos. Active in Bologna, Torelli would have known of the operatic arias and the numerous sonatas and sinfonias for trumpet and strings produced in Bologna since the 1660s. He himself composed more than a dozen such works for trumpet, two dated in the early 1690s. Other early violin concertos are the four in Tomaso Albinoni
Tomaso Albinoni
Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni was an Italian Baroque composer. While famous in his day as an opera composer, he is mainly remembered today for his instrumental music, such as the concertos, some of which are regularly recorded.-Biography:Born in Venice, Republic of Venice, to Antonio Albinoni, a...
’s op. 2 (1700) and the six in Torelli’s important op. 8 (1709 - the other six works in this set are double concertos for two violins).
The most influential and prolific composer of concertos during the Baroque period was the Venetian Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...
(1678–1741). In addition to his nearly 60 extant ripieno concertos, Vivaldi composed approximately 425 concertos for one or more soloists, including about 350 solo concertos (two-thirds for solo violin) and 45 double concertos (over half for two violins). Vivaldi’s concertos firmly establish the three-movement form as the norm. The virtuosity of the solo sections increases markedly, especially in the later works, and concurrently the texture becomes more homophonic.
Concertos for instruments other than violin began to appear early in the 18th century, including the oboe concertos of George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel
George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...
and the numerous concertos for flute, oboe, bassoon, cello, and other instruments by Vivaldi. The earliest organ concertos can probably be credited to Handel (16 concertos, ca. 1735-51), the earliest harpsichord concertos to Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
(14 concertos for one to four harpsichords, ca. 1735-40). In the latter case, all but probably one of the concertos are arrangements of existing works, though Bach had already approached the idea of a harpsichord concerto before 1721 in the Brandenburg Concerto no. 5.
Classical
The ClassicalClassical period (music)
The dates of the Classical Period in Western music are generally accepted as being between about 1750 and 1830. However, the term classical music is used colloquially to describe a variety of Western musical styles from the ninth century to the present, and especially from the sixteenth or...
period brought the triumph of the solo concerto over the group or multiple concerto, assisted by the continued rise of the virtuoso soloist and the growing demand for up-to-date works for performance by amateurs. The former trend appears most obviously in the large number of violin concertos written by violinists for their own use.
The Classical period also witnessed the rise of the keyboard concerto. Until about 1770, the preferred stringed keyboard instrument was usually the harpsichord
Harpsichord
A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
, but it was gradually supplanted by the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
. The most important composers of keyboard concertos before Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
were Bach’s sons. Vienna saw the production of many keyboard concertos. The last decades of the 18th century brought the rise of traveling piano virtuosos.
The concertos of this period show a broad transition from Baroque to Classical style, though many are more conservative than contemporaneous symphonies. Most are in three movements, though a significant minority adopt lighter two-movement patterns such as Allegro-Minuet and Allegro-Rondo. Dance and rondo finales are also frequent in three-movement concertos.
Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
’s concertos are mostly from his early career. Exceptions are the Piano Concerto in D
Keyboard Concerto No. 11 (Haydn)
Joseph Haydn's Keyboard Concerto No. 11 in D major, Hob. XVIII/11 was written between 1780 and 1783. It was originally composed for harpsichord or fortepiano and scored for an orchestra in a relatively undeveloped galant style evident in his early works, and has a lively Hungarian Rondo finale...
, the Cello Concerto in D
Cello Concerto No. 2 (Haydn)
Joseph Haydn's Concerto No. 2 in D Major, Hob. VIIb/2, for cello and orchestra was composed in 1783 for Antonín Kraft, a cellist of Prince Nikolaus's Esterházy Orchestra....
, and the Trumpet Concerto
Trumpet Concerto (Haydn)
Joseph Haydn's Concerto per il Clarino, Hob.: VII e, 1 was written in 1796, when he was 64 years old, for his long time friend Anton Weidinger.-Original instrument:...
.
Of Mozart’s 23 original piano concertos, 17 date from his Viennese period. They are the crowning achievement of the concerto in the 18th century. Most of the works he wrote for Vienna are of a type that Mozart called grand concertos. These were intended for performance at his own subscription concerts, which were held in sizeable halls. They call for an orchestra that is much larger than a typical concerto of the time, especially in the expanded role assigned to the winds. The orchestra is rendered fully capable of sustaining a dramatic confrontation with the virtuosity and individuality of the soloist. Mozart’s approach in these concertos is often clearly symphonic, both in the application of formal symphonic principles, and in a Haydnesque interest in thematic unity in the later concertos. The range of styles and expression is greater than that of most other concertos of the period, from the comic-opera elements of K.467 to the Italianate lyricism of K.488, the tragic character of K.466 and 491 to the Beethovenian heroism of K.503.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
’s five piano concertos date from between about 1793 and 1809, (there is an early work from 1784). They are longer than Mozart's concertos, and call for even more virtuosity from the soloist. Beethoven’s Violin Concerto
Violin Concerto (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, was written in 1806.The work was premiered on 23 December 1806 in the Theater an der Wien in Vienna. Beethoven wrote the concerto for his colleague Franz Clement, a leading violinist of the day, who had earlier given him helpful advice on...
(1806) exhibits similar achievements - Mozart’s five violin concertos are all early works written in Salzburg in 1775.
Romantic
Early RomanticRomantic music
Romantic music or music in the Romantic Period is a musicological and artistic term referring to a particular period, theory, compositional practice, and canon in Western music history, from 1810 to 1900....
concertos include Mendelssohn
Mendelssohn
Mendelson is a Polish/German Jewish family name, meaning "son of Mendel", Mendel being a Yiddish diminutive of the Hebrew given name Menahem, meaning "consoling" or "one who consoles".Mendelssohn is the surname of a number of people:...
’s two piano concertos (1831–37) and his important Violin Concerto
Violin Concerto (Mendelssohn)
Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 is his last large orchestral work. It forms an important part of the violin repertoire and is one of the most popular and most frequently performed violin concertos of all time...
(1844) and Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
's concertos for piano
Piano Concerto (Schumann)
The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.54, is a famous Romantic concerto by Robert Schumann, completed in 1845.Schumann had begun several piano concerti before this one: In 1828, he had begun one in E-flat major; from 1829-31 he worked on one in F major, and in 1839, he wrote one movement of a concerto...
(1845), cello
Cello Concerto (Schumann)
The Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129, by Robert Schumann was completed in a period of only two weeks, between 10 October and 24 October 1850, shortly after Schumann became the music director at Düsseldorf.The concerto was never played in Schumann's lifetime...
(1850), and violin
Violin Concerto (Schumann)
Robert Schumann’s Violin Concerto in D minor, WoO 23 was his only violin concerto and one of his last significant compositions, and one that remained unknown to all but a very small circle for more than 80 years after it was written.- Composition :...
(1853). The form of these works is predominantly in the Classical three-movements. Later works in this mould include examples by Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
(two for piano - No. 1
Piano Concerto No. 1 (Brahms)
The Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15, is a work for piano and orchestra composed by Johannes Brahms in 1858. The composer gave the work's public debut in Hanover, Germany, the following year.-Form:...
from 1858 and No. 2
Piano Concerto No. 2 (Brahms)
The Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 83 by Johannes Brahms is a composition for solo piano with orchestral accompaniment. It is separated by a gap of 22 years from the composer's first piano concerto. Brahms began work on the piece in 1878 and completed it in 1881 while in Pressbaum near...
from 1878 which adds a fourth movement - and one for violin
Violin Concerto (Brahms)
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 is a violin concerto in three movements composed by Johannes Brahms in 1878 and dedicated to his friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim...
of 1878), Edvard Grieg
Edvard Grieg
Edvard Hagerup Grieg was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is best known for his Piano Concerto in A minor, for his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen's play Peer Gynt , and for his collection of piano miniatures Lyric Pieces.-Biography:Edvard Hagerup Grieg was born in...
(piano
Piano Concerto (Grieg)
The Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, composed by Edvard Grieg in 1868, was the only concerto Grieg completed. It is one of his most popular works and among the most popular of all piano concerti.-Structure :The concerto is in three movements:...
, 1868), Max Bruch
Max Bruch
Max Christian Friedrich Bruch , also known as Max Karl August Bruch, was a German Romantic composer and conductor who wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos, the first of which has become a staple of the violin repertoire.-Life:Bruch was born in Cologne, Rhine Province, where he...
(most famously his Violin Concerto No. 1
Violin Concerto No. 1 (Bruch)
Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26, is one of the most popular violin concertos in the repertoire. It continues to be performed and recorded by many violinists and is arguably Bruch's most famous composition.- History :...
, 1868), and Antonín Dvořák
Antonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
(piano
Piano Concerto (Dvorák)
The Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G minor, Op.33 was the first of three concertos that Antonín Dvořák completed—it was followed by a violin concerto and then a cello concerto—and the piano concerto is probably the least known and least performed....
, violin
Violin Concerto (Dvorák)
Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53 is a concerto for violin and orchestra composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1879. The concerto was premiered in 1883 by František Ondříček in Prague. He also gave the premieres in Vienna and London...
, cello
Cello Concerto (Dvorák)
The Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, B. 191, by Antonín Dvořák was the composer's last solo concerto, and was written in 1894–1895 for his friend, the cellist Hanuš Wihan, but premiered by the English cellist Leo Stern.- Structure :...
, 1876–95). In France this tradition is represented primarily by Camille Saint-Saëns
Camille Saint-Saëns
Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns was a French Late-Romantic composer, organist, conductor, and pianist. He is known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse macabre, Samson and Delilah, Piano Concerto No. 2, Cello Concerto No. 1, Havanaise, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso, and his Symphony...
(ten concertos for piano, violin, and cello, 1858–1902), in Russia by Anton Rubinstein
Anton Rubinstein
Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein was a Russian-Jewish pianist, composer and conductor. As a pianist he was regarded as a rival of Franz Liszt, and he ranks amongst the great keyboard virtuosos...
and Tchaikovsky (three piano concertos, one for violin, 1874–93).
A more overtly virtuosic trend appeared in the concertos of brilliant violinists in the 19th century including Louis Spohr
Louis Spohr
Louis Spohr was a German composer, violinist and conductor. Born Ludewig Spohr, he is usually known by the French form of his name. Described by Dorothy Mayer as "The Forgotten Master", Spohr was once as famous as Beethoven. As a violinist, his virtuoso playing was admired by Queen Victoria...
and Niccolò Paganini
Niccolò Paganini
Niccolò Paganini was an Italian violinist, violist, guitarist, and composer. He was one of the most celebrated violin virtuosi of his time, and left his mark as one of the pillars of modern violin technique...
and pianists Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
(two concertos, 1829–30) and Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
(two concertos, original versions 1839-49). The movement structure in most of these works is in the by-now conventional ritornello-sonata type perfected by Mozart and Beethoven. Liszt’s two concertos, however, are unconventional, in that the first concerto's five sections are connected both formally and thematically, and the second utilizes a still freer sectional structure. The first concerto in particular shows the influence of such continuous composite forms as those of Weber
Carl Maria von Weber
Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber was a German composer, conductor, pianist, guitarist and critic, one of the first significant composers of the Romantic school....
’s Konzertstuck and Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy. The virtuosity required by all these concertos was facilitated by—and helped to spur—technical developments in the instruments themselves.
20th Century
Numerous works of the 20th century were written in the vein of the 19th century Romantic concertos - and often using its forms and styles - including concertos by Sergei RachmaninoffSergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
(four piano concertos, 1890–1926), Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...
(violin
Violin Concerto (Sibelius)
The Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47, was written by Jean Sibelius in 1904.-History:Sibelius originally dedicated the concerto to the noted violinist Willy Burmester, who promised to play the concerto in Berlin...
, 1903), Edward Elgar
Edward Elgar
Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet OM, GCVO was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestral works including the Enigma Variations, the Pomp and Circumstance Marches, concertos...
(violin
Violin Concerto (Elgar)
Edward Elgar's Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61, is one of his longest orchestral compositions, and the last of his works to gain immediate popular success....
1909-10, cello
Cello Concerto (Elgar)
Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85, his last notable work, is a cornerstone of the solo cello repertoire. Elgar composed it in the aftermath of the First World War, by which time his music had gone out of fashion with the concert-going public...
1919), Carl Nielsen
Carl Nielsen
Carl August Nielsen , , widely recognised as Denmark's greatest composer, was also a conductor and a violinist. Brought up by poor but musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he demonstrated his musical abilities at an early age...
(violin, flute, clarinet), Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
(five for piano, 1911–32; two for violin 1916-17 and 1935), William Walton
William Walton
Sir William Turner Walton OM was an English composer. During a sixty-year career, he wrote music in several classical genres and styles, from film scores to opera...
(viola, violin, cello), Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Soviet Russian composer and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century....
(two each for piano, violin, and cello), and Francis Poulenc
Francis Poulenc
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc was a French composer and a member of the French group Les six. He composed solo piano music, chamber music, oratorio, choral music, opera, ballet music, and orchestral music...
(organ). The virtuoso tradition mirrored in these concertos is also obvious, though in radically original guise, in the concertos of Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
. Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Bartók were all piano virtuosos.
The composers of the Second Viennese School
Second Viennese School
The Second Viennese School is the group of composers that comprised Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils and close associates in early 20th century Vienna, where he lived and taught, sporadically, between 1903 and 1925...
also produced several prominent concertos: Alban Berg
Alban Berg
Alban Maria Johannes Berg was an Austrian composer. He was a member of the Second Viennese School with Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern, and produced compositions that combined Mahlerian Romanticism with a personal adaptation of Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique.-Early life:Berg was born in...
’s Chamber Concerto for piano, violin, and 13 winds (1923–25), not fully serial
Serialism
In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...
but incorporating many elements of Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg
Arnold Schoenberg was an Austrian composer, associated with the expressionist movement in German poetry and art, and leader of the Second Viennese School...
’s new system; Anton Webern
Anton Webern
Anton Webern was an Austrian composer and conductor. He was a member of the Second Viennese School. As a student and significant follower of Arnold Schoenberg, he became one of the best-known exponents of the twelve-tone technique; in addition, his innovations regarding schematic organization of...
’s Concerto for nine instruments (1931–34), originally intended as a piano concerto; Berg’s important Violin Concerto (1935); and Schoenberg
Schoenberg
Schoenberg is the surname of several persons:* Arnold Schoenberg , Austrian-American composer* Claude-Michel Schoenberg , French record producer, actor, singer, popular songwriter, and musical theatre composer...
’s own Violin Concerto (1935–36) and Piano Concerto (1942).
The neoclassical
Neoclassicism (music)
Neoclassicism in music was a twentieth-century trend, particularly current in the period between the two World Wars, in which composers sought to return to aesthetic precepts associated with the broadly defined concept of "classicism", namely order, balance, clarity, economy, and emotional restraint...
movement of the period following World War I produced a long series of works that returned to pre-Romantic conceptions of the concerto. Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
’s Concerto for Piano and Winds (1923–24) is in this idiom, but his subsequent concertos are more specifically neo-Baroque in character. His Violin Concerto (1931), for example, comprises a Toccata, two Arias, and a Capriccio, and the soloist is treated more as a member of the ensemble than as a virtuoso protagonist. The solo concertos of Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
(8 for various instruments, 1939–62) are more traditional than Stravinsky's in their treatment of the relationship between soloist and orchestra. Though hardly neoclassical in the usual sense, Richard Strauss
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss was a leading German composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras. He is known for his operas, which include Der Rosenkavalier and Salome; his Lieder, especially his Four Last Songs; and his tone poems and orchestral works, such as Death and Transfiguration, Till...
’ Horn Concerto no. 2 (1942, written some 60 years after his first) and Oboe Concerto (1945) also reach back to an earlier era, finding nostalgic inspiration in the wind concertos of Mozart.
A tendency related to the neoclassical rejection of Romantic and traditional features is the use of jazz elements in many 20th century concertos. George Gershwin
George Gershwin
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist. Gershwin's compositions spanned both popular and classical genres, and his most popular melodies are widely known...
was a pioneer for such works, in for example his Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and Concerto in F for piano (1925) . Jazz is a source of inspiration for Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
’s Piano Concerto in G (1929–31), Stravinsky’s Ebony Concerto for clarinet and jazz band (1945).