Performance of a piano concerto involves a piano on stage with the orchestra

A piano concerto is a work written for piano and orchestra. The piano is a Musical instrument played by means of a keyboard that produces sound by striking steel strings with Felt covered hammers An orchestra is an instrumental ensemble, usually fairly large with string brass woodwind sections and possibly a percussion section as well See also harpsichord concerto; some of these works are occasionally played on piano. A harpsichord concerto is a piece of music for an Orchestra with the Harpsichord in a solo role (though for another sense see below Joseph Haydn and Thomas Arne wrote concertos for fortepiano or harpsichord, at the period of time when they were in common usage (the late 18th century. Thomas Augustine Arne (12 March 1710 &ndash 5 March 1778 was an English Composer, best known for the patriotic Rule Britannia!. Fortepiano designates the early version of the Piano, from its invention by the Italian instrument maker Bartolomeo Cristofori around 1700 up to the early 19th century )

History

Classical and Romantic

As the piano developed and became accepted, composers naturally started writing concerti for it. A composer (literally meaning 'one who puts together' is a person who creates Music, usually in the medium of notation, for Interpretation and Performance This happened in the late 18th century, and so corresponded to the Classical music era. The dates of the Classical period in Western music are generally accepted as 1750 to 1810 The most important composer in the development of the form in these early stages was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart's body of masterly piano concerti put his stamp firmly on the genre well into the Romantic era.

Mozart wrote many of his 27 piano concertos for himself to perform (he also wrote concerti for two and three pianos). Piano concertos Origins Early keyboard concertos were written by among others C With the development of the piano virtuoso many composer-pianists did likewise, notably Ludwig van Beethoven, Carl Maria von Weber, Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Sergei Prokofiev, and also the somewhat lesser-known Johann Nepomuk Hummel and John Field. A pianist (/'piənɪst/ is a Musician who plays the Piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces play with an ensemble or Orchestra A virtuoso (from Italian virtuoso, late Latin virtuosus, Latin virtus meaning skill manliness excellence is an individual Ludwig van Beethoven ( English ˈlʊdvɪg væn ˈbeɪtoʊvən, 16 December 1770 &ndash 26 March 1827 was a German Composer and Pianist. Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber ( 18 December 1786 in Eutin, Holstein, Germany - 5 June 1826 in London WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section --> Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff (Сергей Васильевич Рахманинов Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (Серге́й Серге́евич Проко́фьев Sergéj Sergéjevič Prokófjev) ( - 5 March 1953 was a Russian composer who Johann Nepomuk Hummel or Jan Nepomuk Hummel (14 November 1778 &ndash 17 October 1837 was a Composer and virtuoso Pianist of Austrian John Field (26 July 1782 &ndash 23 January 1837 was an Irish Composer and Pianist. Many other Romantic composers wrote pieces in the form, well-known examples including the concerti by Robert Schumann, Edward Grieg, Johannes Brahms, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Romantic Music is a Musicological term referring to a particular period theory compositional practice and canon in European music history from about 1815 to 1910 Robert Schumann, sometimes given as Robert Alexander Schumann (June 8 1810 &ndash July 29 1856 was a German Composer, Aesthete and influential Music critic Johannes Brahms ( pronounced ˈbʁaːms (May 7 1833 &ndash April 3 1897 was a German Composer

20th century and contemporary

The piano concerto form survived through the 20th century into the 21st, with examples being written by Arnold Schoenberg, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, George Gershwin, Michael Tippett, Dmitri Shostakovich, Samuel Barber, Witold Lutosławski, György Ligeti, Einojuhani Rautavaara, and others. At the turn of the 20th century classical music was characteristically late Romantic in style while at the same time the Impressionist movement spearheaded by Claude Debussy Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to a period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. Arnold Schoenberg ( pronounced ˈʃøːnbɛrk (13 September 1874 &ndash 13 July 1951 was an Austrian and later American Composer, associated with Béla Viktor János Bartók (March 25 1881&ndashSeptember 26 1945 was a Hungarian Composer and Pianist, considered to be one of the greatest Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (Игорь Фёдорович Стравинский) ( &ndash 6 April 1971 was a Russian born Composer, considered by many to Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (Серге́й Серге́евич Проко́фьев Sergéj Sergéjevič Prokófjev) ( - 5 March 1953 was a Russian composer who George Gershwin (September 26 1898 &ndash July 11 1937 was an American Composer. Sir Michael Kemp Tippett, OM (2 January 1905 &ndash 8 January 1998 was one of the foremost English Composers of the 20th century Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich ( Russian: ru Дмитрий Дмитриевич Шостакович ( &ndash 9 August 1975 was a Russian Composer Samuel Osborne Barber II ( March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American Composer of Orchestral, Opera, Witold Lutosławski ( January 25 1913 &ndash February 7 1994 was one of the major European Composers Einojuhani Rautavaara ( (born October 9, 1928) is a Finnish Composer of Contemporary classical music, and is probably the best-known

There are examples of piano concerti written to commissions by pianists. Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm during World War I, on resuming his musical career asked a number of composers to write pieces for him which required the pianist to use his left hand only. Paul Wittgenstein ( May 11, 1887 &ndash March 3, 1961) was an Austrian born Pianist. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All The results of these commissions include concertante pieces for orchestra and piano left hand by Benjamin Britten, Franz Schmidt, Maurice Ravel, Sergei Prokofiev (his Piano Concerto No. Edward Benjamin Britten Baron Britten, OM CH (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976 was an English Composer, conductor, Franz Schmidt ( December 22, 1874 &ndash February 11, 1939) was an Austrian Composer, cellist and pianist Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev (Серге́й Серге́евич Проко́фьев Sergéj Sergéjevič Prokófjev) ( - 5 March 1953 was a Russian composer who 4) and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Erich Wolfgang Korngold ( May 29, 1897 &ndash November 29, 1957) was an Academy Award -winning 20th century Film and

Other notes

Composers continually extended the scope of the piano concerto. For instance, Henry Charles Litolff explored the symphonic possibilities of the form, and Ferruccio Busoni added a male choir in the last movement of his hour-long concerto. Henry Charles Litolff ( 6 February 1818 &ndash August 5 1891) was a keyboard Virtuoso and Composer of Romantic Ferruccio Dante Michelangiolo Benvenuto Busoni (April 1 1866 &ndash July 27 1924 was an Italian Composer, Pianist, musical educator and conductor. The Piano Concerto in C major by Ferruccio Busoni, Opus 39 is one of the largest works written in this particular genre

The few well-known piano concerti which dominate today's concert programs and discographies account for only a minority of the repertoire which proliferated on the European music scene during the 19th century.

Characteristics

Form

A classical piano concerto is often in three movements.

1. A quick opening movement in sonata form including a cadenza (which may be improvised by the soloist). Sonata form is a Musical form that has been used widely since the early Classical period. In Music, a cadenza (Italian for cadence) is generically an improvised or written-out ornamental passage played or sung by a soloist or soloists usually Improvisation (also called extemporization) is the practice of acting singing talking and reacting of making and creating in the moment and in response to the stimulus of
2. A slow expressive movement
3. A faster rondo

Examples by Mozart and Beethoven follow this model, but examples abound which do not. Rondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in Music in a number of ways most often in reference to a Musical form Beethoven's fourth concerto includes a last-movement cadenza, and many composers have introduced innovations - for example Liszt's single-movement concerti.

See also

• List of compositions for piano and orchestra

External links

• Hyperion's Romantic Piano Concerto Series (a commercial website selling concerto recordings on CD)
• Rachmaninoff's Works for Piano and Orchestra An analysis of Rachmaninoff's Works for Piano and Orchestra including the Piano Concertos and the Paganini Rhapsody. This is a list of Musical compositions for piano and orchestra.
• Classical and Romantic Piano Concertos, an extensive list of Classical and Romantic piano concertos, and other music for piano and orchestra from the same period.

References