# TOP 20 Romantic Piano Concertos HIDDEN GEMS that you should listen!



## mozarta (Feb 19, 2009)

Hello,

I have posted 2 top 10 videos of lesser-known romantic piano concertos. The goal is to unveil highly talentuous composers that made amazing piano concertos that are not well known by the public.

First top 10:






Second top 10:






Do not hesitate to let me know your view on these lists!


----------



## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)




----------



## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

The Romantic Piano Concerto series on Hyperion is stunning - so many great and sadly unplayed works that only record collectors will ever know. What are they up to now, 80 volumes and counting? And still they haven't recorded the Raff concerto or the complete Rubinstein works.


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

mbhaub said:


> The Romantic Piano Concerto series on Hyperion is stunning - so many great and sadly unplayed works that only record collectors will ever know. What are they up to now, 80 volumes and counting? And still they haven't recorded the Raff concerto or the complete Rubinstein works.


I have 82 of the Hyperion RPC discs, the latest featuring Concertos 1 & 2 by Stéphan Elmas, a Turkish prodigy who at age 13 gave an all Liszt recital that so impressed the composer that he took the boy on as a student. Yet Elmas is likely not a "household name" as composers (or pianists) go. I found these two minor key (G and D) concertos intriguing, if not completely memorable.

It's true that Hyperion has not yet added the Raff Concerto, but it _is_ available in the reasonably priced 20-CD box set from Brilliant Classics - 9021 - which offers a fine selection of concertos for those not interested in collecting the Hyperions.


----------



## mozarta (Feb 19, 2009)

Thanks for sharing the Hummel concertos hammeredklavier, they are excellent.

The Hyperion is indeed very impressive Sonnet CLV and mbhaub! What a great tribute. 

Elmas is a fantastic lesser-known pianist, as you said Sonnet, he also had the support of Liszt. It is important to say that he was Armenian as he and his family had to flee to switzerland due to the highly dramatic conflict with Turkey at his epoca.


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

mozarta said:


> Thanks for sharing the Hummel concertos hammeredklavier, they are excellent.
> 
> ....


I first encountered the Hummel Piano Concerto In B Minor in the late '60s or early '70s on a VOX vinyl disc featuring pianist Martin Galling. The concerto left an indelible impression with that first hearing, and the piece (and the album) have remained favorites for decades now.









That album also featured the Piano Concerto In F by François-Adrien Boieldieu. This work is an absolute gem I'm surprised is not better known and more often recorded. My affection for these two pieces has made that VOX album one of my most treasured discs in over a half-century of collecting recorded music.


----------



## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

mozarta said:


> Hello,
> 
> I have posted 2 top 10 videos of lesser-known romantic piano concertos. The goal is to unveil highly talentuous composers that made amazing piano concertos that are not well known by the public.
> 
> ...


You may want to also post a verbal reference to the composition in addition to the YouTube link. YouTube links often go dead or the videos are taken down making the thread less useful in the future. Moreover many on this forum will go seek these compositions elsewhere.

BTW the above quoted videos are of the Clara Wieck (Schumann) concerto, and Elmas' first piano concerto. I am less familiar with the Elmas concerto (it goes on my listening pile for today), but can vouch for the Clara Wieck Concerto being a great composition.

*P.S.* Oops, the linked videos name several concertos each as best as I can tell. I will have to watch in a couple of hours and document what they are. It would be quite useful to document the works by name. I for one would grab the name and go find the composition on a streaming service like Qobuz or Amazon Music.


----------



## mozarta (Feb 19, 2009)

You will most likely love the Elmas piano concerto Aziz, it is amazing.

Sure, I did put all the names of the composers/piano concertos references in the 2 videos and its descriptions areas on Youtube for people to find it back. All these concertos were found through Youtube and can be listened there.


----------



## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

mozarta said:


> You will most likely love the Elmas piano concerto Aziz, it is amazing.
> 
> Sure, I did put all the names of the composers/piano concertos references in the 2 videos and its descriptions areas on Youtube for people to find it back. All these concertos were found through Youtube and can be listened there.


Thanks. I was suggesting including the names and compositions in your post on this forum, rather than relying on just the YouTube video link. YouTube videos are taken down too frequently to rely on them as a permanent record. By all means include the video link but please also just name the works in the posting on TalkClassical.


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

haziz said:


> It would be quite useful to document the works by name. I for one would grab the name and go find the composition on a streaming service like Qobuz or Amazon Music.


For posterity then:

Part 1:

1) Clara Schumann
Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 7

2) Moritz Moszkowski
Piano Concerto in E major, Op. 59

3) Carl Reinecke 
Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 120

4) Heraclius Djabadary
Piano Concerto Op.10

5) Charles-Valentin Alkan 
Concerto da camera Op. 10

6) Sigismond Thalberg
Piano Concerto in F minor, Op.5

7) Erno Dohnanyi
Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 42 in B minor

8) Kurt Atterberg
Piano Concerto in B flat minor

9) Herbert Howells
Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Minor

10) Joaquín Rodrigo
"Concierto heroico" for piano and orchestra.

Part 2:

1) Stéphan Elmas
Piano Concerto No. 1 in G minor

2) Alexander Glazunov
Piano Concerto No. 2 in B major, Op. 100

3) Dmitry Kabalevsky
Piano Concerto No. 3 in D major, Op. 50

4) Eduard Künneke
Piano Concerto No. 1 in A flat major, Op. 36

5) Anna Kuzina
Piano Concerto

6) Gotfried Hasanov
Piano Concerto No. 1

7) Esther Allan
Romantic Concerto for piano and orchestra

8) Édouard Lalo 
Piano Concerto in F minor

9) Ulvi Cemal Erkin
Piano Concerto

10) Henryk Wars
Piano Concerto.


----------



## mozarta (Feb 19, 2009)

Understood Aziz, Art Rock, thanks.


----------



## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

When it comes to Romantic and Late-Romantic music, my knowledge is limited outside the basic repertoire, but here are a few that that I like:

*Amy Beach* (1867-1944): _Piano Concerto_ 
Beach was part of the Boston Classicists which also included John Knowles Paine (1839-1906), Arthur Foote (1853-1937), George Chadwick (1854-1931), Edward MacDowell (1861-1908), and Horatio Parker (1863-1919). Their objective was to found an "American" school of classical music, and while their music is generally an unremarkable reflection of European Romanticism, it is also usually pleasant, polite and well-crafted; although most of the music of the Boston Classicists still exists on the periphery of the basic repertoire. Every once in while you find something that is dramatic enough that it probably should have found a place closer to the heart of the basic repertoire, and Beach's _Piano Concerto_ is such a work, even if it brings nothing new to an "American" school of classical music that wasn't already done in Europe.

*Xaver Scharwenka* (1850-1924): _Piano Concerto #1_
Scharwenka was a German composer who was ethnically Polish. I recently heard this concerto on Youtube in a recording by Earl Wild with Erich Liensdorf and the Boston Symphony Orchestra and remember liking it more than I thought I would. Like Amy Beach, there's not much here that isn't derivative of Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, etc.; but still good fun.

*Ferruccio Busoni *(1866-1924): _Piano Concerto_ 
It's interesting that most concert pianists have avoided this monster of a piano concerto. It consists of five sprawling movements and even ends with a choral finale. What the Busoni concerto may lack in innovation and form, it makes up for in it's bold ostentatious display as it attempts to outdo all the grandiosity of Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Liszt; and it even opens with dramatic waves that go on ten times longer than Tchaikovsky's _Piano Concerto #1_. Clocking in at over one hour, Busoni's _Piano Concerto_ goes down like a 22 once steak and is not conducive to everyday listening, but there's nothing else like it.

Amy Beach, Xaver Scharwenka, and Ferruccio Busoni:


----------



## mozarta (Feb 19, 2009)

Thanks Coach G for these additional composers, I have also enjoyed their piano concertos a lot.


----------



## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Friedrich Kalkbrenner
Carl Czerny 
Norbert Burgmuller 
William Sterndale Bennett 
Anton Rubinstein 
Franz Berwald 
Mily Balakirev 
Charles-Valentin Alkan 
Hermann Goetz 
Ferruccio Busoni
Hans Huber 
Giuseppe Martucci 
Anton Arensky 
Felix Draeseke 
Ignacy Jan Paderewski 
Amy Beach 
Xaver Scharwenka


----------



## haziz (Sep 15, 2017)

Another strong recommendation for the concertos by Clara Wieck (Schumann) and Amy Beach.


----------



## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

John Field, baby!


----------

