# Best Violin and Piano Concertos You've never heard of



## jhudock (Jul 7, 2012)

What are some great piano concertos and violin concertos that are obscure, but that have impressed you greatly?

I will suggest two finds in the past few years, but Soviet.

Tcherepnin Piano concertos, particularly the first. After having no recordings, they received two complete recordings in the late 2000's, one set by Lan Shui and the other by Murray McLachlan. The Lan Shui set also contains his symphonies which are also quite fine.

Fairly obscure a few years ago, he is undergoing something of a revival, with lots of new recordings of his works. He was a student of Shostakovich and well worth listening to.

For my obscure violin concerto, which may be the best 20th century violin concerto you've never heard, I recommend the concerto by Aleksandr Matchavariani, a Georgian composer, who came to 'official disapproval'. As far as I know there are no current recordings of the violin concero. Oistrakh performed it in the 50s, but I don't think he ever recorded it. There is an old Westminster recording, but I don't think its available. That's the bad news. The good news is that the composers son maintains a website and you can download a recording of the work there. http://www.matchavariani.ge/alexi/rec.html

A review described it as "you might imagine it to be the violin concerto that Rachmaninov never wrote"

His other works are well worth a listen as well. I wish a Georgian record label would start a project of collecting and recording his works.

So let's hear about undiscovered gems you've found.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Piano: Ireland
Violin: Moeran


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## maestro267 (Jul 25, 2009)

I have both of those, although I haven't got round to listening to the Moeran concerto yet.

My nomination is Bax's Winter Legends.


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## PlaySalieri (Jun 3, 2012)

I think the Haydn piano concerto is a fine work.
Beriot concerto for violin no 9 is superb (my son plays it - that's the only reason I know it)


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## jani (Jun 15, 2012)

Piano: Ludwig Van Beethovens 5th
Violin: Jean Sibelius


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

It's a response thing. Bartók's PC2 and Sibelius' VC are the soul expanders. Beethoven's 4th PC and VC are the spirit expanders.

[The soul is passive; the spirit is not.]


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## Hausmusik (May 13, 2012)

"I think the Haydn piano concerto is a fine work."
Which one?


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## Taneyev (Jan 19, 2009)

jhudock; I agree with you. I'v have Matchavariani. But there's one even better IMHO: Otar Taktakishvili Nº1. Strongly recommended. And for a totally romantic, melodic beautiful, violinistic fantastic, Nicolai Rakov Nº1,


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## HarpsichordConcerto (Jan 1, 2010)




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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Violin: Vieuxtemps and wieniawski


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## Kazaman (Apr 13, 2013)

Bach's Keyboard concerti in G minor and F minor are some of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard.


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## quack (Oct 13, 2011)

Just heard Ernest Bloch's violin concerto for the first time recently, played by Menuhin. Seemed like an interesting work I was surprised it has been recorded so infrequently.

As for piano I quite like Shchedrin's percussive, bang thump kind of concertos as well as those of Paisiello and Villa-Lobos.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

This thread must have been posted when I was on hiatus a while back. My vote for obscure piano concertos goes to Herbert Howells' Nos. 1 and 2 both recorded by Richard Hickox and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Howard Shelly, piano, on Chandos.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Rachmaniov's piano concertos are pretty sweet. Not obscure, but sweet.


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Kewl thread.



> What are some great piano concertos and violin concertos that are obscure, but that have impressed you greatly?


Violin:

Henri Vieuxtemps cycle (romantic)
G. B Viotti, a large cycle with some gems (classical)
Karol Lipiński cycle (early romantic)
Mieczysław Karłowicz A major (late romantic)
Henryk Wieniawski's F# minor (2nd is relatively well known), (romantic)
Feliks Janiewicz E minor (classical)

Piano:

C.M von Weber 
Alkan chamber concertos
Paderewski
I. F Dobrzyński
Zygmunt Stojowski
Józef Wieniawski

Some links for above:


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

Schumann's Violin Concerto: "obscure" may be an exaggeration
Korngold's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

At this point in time, Hilding Rosenberg's first piano concerto from 1930. It's unfinished with an opening allegro and slow movement, both wonderful, but no third movement. Why he left this fine piece unfinished is puzzling, since he did compose a second complete piano concerto 20 years later, not nearly as inspired as the first.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Henze violin concertos

Maurice Ohana piano concerto


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

One or more of the Tcherepnin (Alexander, the middle of three generations of composers in this family) piano concerti were recorded and in circulation, scores available, in the mid to late 1960's (within the U.S.A. anyway.) I recall 'finding' this music in the public library, both score and recording. I've forgotten which number concerto it was, but I was fascinated with the one which opens with the piano and a snare drum  Both recording (Composer'sRecordingsIncorporated, Louisville Orchestra?) and score were in the library.

The concerti are, save the one described above, half 'modernist' and more than half semi-romantic, and none are particularly heavy-duty show vehicles for the pianist. That last, and the fact he was already an American citizen in the 1950's at least, means those works are all under copyright. If not for that, they might show more often with young advanced pianists in competition, at least.

His Bagatelles, Op. 5, were and still are widely used in piano pedagogy, and are still very pleasant 'listens.'


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

I must confess that usually when I hear an 'obscure' Concerto, by the time it's finished I realise why it's obscure!


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I wouldn't like to say whether all of the following are obscure in the strictest sense of the word or more suffering from long-term neglect, but here we go:

Paul Hindemith - Piano Concerto (1945) - composed at a time when he was concentrating more on orchestral output than other categories. There is another work he wrote - better than the concerto, I think - for Balanchine's ballet The Four Temperaments in 1940, not long after his relocation to the USA. Although not designated as a concerto, the work was scored for piano and strings and follows a theme and four variations structure (the final variation even includes a violin solo).

Ervin Schulhoff - Concerto for Piano ("alla Jazz'') from 1923. You might be forgiven for thinking it could be a pre-cursor for Ravel's acclaimed Concerto in G, which followed nearly a decade later.

The two violin concertos (1948 & 1956) of Alan Rawsthorne deserve more exposure, too - I find these every bit as enjoyable as those more celebrated British examples by the likes of Walton and Britten.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I'm not sure what should count as obscure... none of the names here are obscure to a lot of the people here, but they weren't the first concertos I heard of, and I like them now. Also, I know the OP didn't ask for cello concertos but I have my own agenda. 

Dutilleux: Cello Concerto
Enescu's Symphonie Concertante
Lutoslawski: Cello Concerto 
Myaskovsky: Cello Concerto
Pierné's Piano Concerto 
Poulenc: Concerto for 2 Pianos
Rihm: Gesungene Zeit 
Rubinstein: Piano Concerto #4
Sinding: Piano Concerto 
Vasks: Violin Concerto "Distant Light"


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

I used to have a copy of Hindemith's violin concerto, Stern/Bernstein, paired with the Barber, but if the Hindemith affected me in a profound way, I wouldn't have such trouble locating the recording of it.


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

hpowders said:


> I used to have a copy of Hindemith's violin concerto, Stern/Bernstein, paired with the Barber, but if the Hindemith affected me in a profound way, I wouldn't have such trouble locating the recording of it.


Ha. Ha. Ha. . . I love your last sentence: ". . .if the Hindemith affected me in a profound way, I wouldn't have such trouble locating the recording of it."

-- I know the feeling.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Marschallin Blair said:


> Ha. Ha. Ha. . . I love your last sentence: ". . .if the Hindemith affected me in a profound way, I wouldn't have such trouble locating the recording of it."
> 
> -- I know the feeling.


That's my rule. A variation on survival of the fittest.


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## Marschallin Blair (Jan 23, 2014)

hpowders said:


> That's my rule. A variation on survival of the fittest.


Popperian falsification writ large: If the cd can't be located, it's because it never passed the emotional bar to begin with.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Marschallin Blair said:


> Popperian falsification writ large: If the cd can't be located, it's because it never passed the emotional bar to begin with.


Much better expressed than I ever could. :tiphat:

PS: Now I know why they have the tip-hat emoticon.


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Hermann Goetz, Violin Concerto.






Amy Beach, Piano Concerto.


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## revdrdave (Jan 8, 2014)

Piano: Hans Pfitzner





Violin: Carlos Chavez


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## mikey (Nov 26, 2013)

I'm quite fond of this piece - a mix between Bartok and Messiaen I find.


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## PeterW (Feb 8, 2010)

Giovanni Allevi: violin concerto


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## kangxi (Jan 24, 2014)

I love the way the OP asks for concertos you've never heard of and right away someone jumps in to nominate beethoven & Sibelius. Must be Herbert Beethoven & Arnold Sibelius.  Perhaps. I'd second the poster who recommended Viotti - I bought a boxed set of all his violin concertos recently and there's not a dud among them. No 22 is especiaslly fine. And Mozart liked him - a rare tribute. There have been some eye-opening stuff in Hyperion's Roamntic Viloin, Piano & Cello concerto series. The Hubay vn concs are especially fine. Naxos have been bringing out some unknown stuff: a poster recommended de Beriot - Naxos are recrding all his violin music and so far have produced 6 of his vn concs.
For piano, in the Hyperion series I love the 4 Henry Litolff concerto symphoniques (including the famous scherzo).
I must also mentio Ferdinand Ries: Naxos are producing all of his piano music and his concertos are very good. You can easily detect the Beethoven influence (Ries was his student) and one of them sounds very Beethovenian indeed.


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