# Romantic era concertos for things other than piano, violin or cello?



## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

I tried to post this before, and then got a message that the board is offline for maintenance. Apologies if this turns out to be a double post, but I don't see my first attempt anywhere.

One thing about the Classical composers: they wrote solo concertos for anything and everything, plus concertante works for various combinations of instruments. And then came the era of big, glamorous virtuosos and concertos for things like flute, bassoon, clarinet etc, all but disappeared, leaving us with one piano and violin concerto after the other, with a cello concerto thrown in here and there. Or did they?

E.g. Bruch wrote a delightful double concerto for viola and clarinet. I'd be interested to hear recommendations for Romantic era concertos for things other than the big three of piano, violin and cello...


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Two that came to mind:

Horn: Richard Strauss
Viola: Berlioz (Harold en Italie)

Of course, the 20th century saw a proliferation of concertos for less common instruments.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

The two organ concertos by Rheinberger warrant a mention as well.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

In 1997 the BBC's Michael Berkeley interviewed the great Manfred Sturmer. 

Sturmer, who was 112 at the time of the interview, was timpanist at the Vienna Philharmonic. He knew Brahms.

He reported that towards the end of his life Brahms had become a great admirer of the then young Gustav Mahler. Brahms was particularly impressed by Mahler's use of timpani, which he thought was exciting and modern.

Mahler's use of timpani inspired Brahms to write a concerto for wash-board. 

I don't know how much of the score remains; I don't know whether it's playable or "reconstructable"


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## Bettina (Sep 29, 2016)

Good idea for a thread topic. I enjoy Mercadante's flute concertos, particularly the one in E minor (Op. 57, composed in 1813). Nice contrast between lyrical and virtuosic sections. I'm not sure if Mercadante counts as a full-fledged Romantic composer (chronologically he seems to fall in between the Classical and Romantic periods), but I thought he was worth mentioning anyway.


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## Vronsky (Jan 5, 2015)

Weber wrote two beautiful clarinet concertos.


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## Überstürzter Neumann (Jan 1, 2014)

Richard Strauss also wrote an oboe concerto and Carl Nielsen wrote one for flute and one for clarinet.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I would not put the Nielsen clarinet concerto (which I love) under the label romantic music though.

Crusell's three clarinet concertos are beautiful pieces.


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## Ekim the Insubordinate (May 24, 2015)

Bartok wrote a concerto for the whole orchestra, called, appropriately, Concerto for Orchestra, Sz 116.

I'm no expert, but it seems that I have heard something said about the dynamics of an instrument determining its suitability for concertos. In the past, the soloist was not competing against as large of orchestral forces. As orchestras increased in size, along with venues, perhaps certain instruments were no longer suitable. As I understand it, cello concertos, while fairly common, are more difficult to write modern concertos for than a modern grand piano or the violin, hence you get more concertos written for those instruments than for the cello.

I do once recall seeing a CD in my library for trombone concertos, and I just did a search, and it appears that Christian Lindberg made a series of recordings of Romantic Trombone Concertos on the BIS label, but I will have to admit I don't recognize any of the composers.


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

I may be stretching just a bit to suggest Carl Maria von Weber's Concertino for Horn and Orchestra.

I strongly recommend the performance by Hermann Baumann, with Kurt Masur leading the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. That has very fine recording of the Weber and both of the Strauss works (noted above by Art Rock).

I believe that there is also a recording on natural horn, probably by Dennis Brain, which, in spite of very impressive ability, just doesn't have the clean snappiness of a horn with keys.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Vronsky said:


> Weber wrote two beautiful clarinet concertos.


Difficult as all hell to play, along with the Concertino!


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Ekim the Insubordinate said:


> I'm no expert, but it seems that I have heard something said about the dynamics of an instrument determining its suitability for concertos. In the past, the soloist was not competing against as large of orchestral forces. As orchestras increased in size, along with venues, perhaps certain instruments were no longer suitable. As I understand it, cello concertos, while fairly common, are more difficult to write modern concertos for than a modern grand piano or the violin, hence you get more concertos written for those instruments than for the cello..


Yup, I have had similar thoughts - most instruments will simply not fill up a large concert hall as well as a piano can. Though it seems to me as if even in chamber music, the Romantic era was somewhat less diverse in instrumentation: they tended to stick to string ensembles, or strings with piano, and here and there a clarinet thrown in. Not much in the way of serenades for winds anymore, or flute quintets, or that sort of thing.

Anyway, looks like there are at least some works I can go check out, thanks to all the knowledgeable posters in this thread...


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## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

Reinecke's Flute Concerto and Chaminade's Flute Concertino are (in my books) gems of the Romantic Era.

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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Bellini: Oboe Concerto in E flat major


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Schumann's Konzerstuck for 4 Horns & Orchestra.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Portamento said:


> Reinecke's Flute Concerto and Chaminade's Flute Concertino are (in my books) gems of the Romantic Era.
> 
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> 
> ...


Lovely pieces I had not heard of before! I'm quite a fan of the flute in a general sort of way.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

DaveM said:


> Schumann's Konzerstuck for 4 Horns & Orchestra.


Horns, of course, will fill a concert hall better than, say, recorder.


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## jurianbai (Nov 23, 2008)

After Classical era, the order of popular concerto may be something like this : Piano , violin then cello concerto. Flute concerto may be the 4th most popular, but I dunno. I enjoy any other concerto such as Clarinet, Oboe, Bassoon, Horn, trumpet, harp. Mostly because I'm a concerto listener, I like it to listening to one particular leading voice rather than a symphony. Also, the one that mostly missing is guitar / lute concerto. 

In Romantic era forward, one of the instruments that newly introduce is xylophone concerto. I rarely remember any xylophone pieces prior to Romantic era.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

I have Concerti for Viola and for Trumpet by Hummel, but it would be pushing the envelope to call him 'Romantic'.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

For concertos for unusual instruments or combinations, almost exclusively post-romantic, see here.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

jurianbai said:


> Mostly because I'm a concerto listener, I like it to listening to one particular leading voice rather than a symphony.


I also tend to prefer concertos to symphonies.



> Also, the one that mostly missing is guitar / lute concerto.


The sound of the 19th century guitar could barely fill a room, let alone a concert hall. It would be completely drowned out by the orchestra.


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## Orpheus (Jul 15, 2012)

Art Rock beat me to Crusell's clarinet concertos. I find them all very enjoyable, the first two in particular, and would recommend them unreservedly as among the best works I have heard for clarinet and orchestra.

For something a little different on the theme of this thread, you might want to consider the double-bass concertos by the instrument's two most notable 19th century virtuosos, Dragonetti and Bottesini (Dragonetti's long life straddled the late Classical and early Romantic eras though, making him a performing contemporary of both Mozart and Beethoven during most of their composing careers). They composed quite a few between them and they are generally quite listenable. None of them are quite fully-fledged romantic works in terms of drama and sonic range though, the orchestra tending to produce a relatively subdued sound in accompaniment - I think this tendency is a necessary adaptation to the capabilities of the instrument, which would just be swallowed up in a full orchestral tutti, however capable the player.


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## Bruckner Anton (Mar 10, 2016)

Here are some works I liked:
1. Composer lived in romantic era, but the music is not quite romantic in nature:
Hummel
Trumpet concerto
Bassoon concerto

Spohr
4 Clarinet Concertos

Mercadante 
Several flute concertos

Weber
2 Clarinet concertos etc
Bassoon concerto

Boieldieu
Harp concerto

Bellini 
Oboe concerto


Romantic concertos
Berlioz
Viola concerto

Reinecke
Flute concerto

Rheinberger
2 Organ concertos

Nielsen
Clarinet concerto
Flute concerto

Glazunov
Saxophone concerto

Richard Strauss
Oboe concerto
2 Horn concertos


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Max Bruch: Concerto for Clarinet and Viola


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