# Your 10 Favorite Piano Concerto Composers



## Sumantra (Feb 1, 2018)

Minimum 3 Entries 


1. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27)
2. Johann Sebastian Bach (1052, 1053, 1055, 1057, 1058, 1060, 1062)
3. Ludwig van Beethoven (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
4. Sergei Prokofiev (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
5. Sergei Rachmaninoff (1, 2, 3, 4)
6. Heitor Villa-Lobos (3, 5, Bachianas 3, Cronos 11)
7. Xaver Scharwenka (1, 2, 3, 4)
8. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1, 2, 3)
9. Frédéric Chopin (1, 2, Grande Polonaise)
10. Camille Saint-Saëns (2, 4, 5)


Others Worth Mentioning 

Nicolai Kapustin (2, 4, Concert Rhapsody)
Geirr Tveitt (1, 4, 5)
Dmitry Kabalevsky (1, 2, 4)
Franz Liszt (1, 2, Totentanz)
Felix Mendelssohn (1, Double, 2 Pianos No. 1)
Nikolai Medtner (1, 2, 3)
Béla Bartók (1, 3, Two Pianos)


* Brahms, Shostakovich, Scriabin left out for not having 3 entries...


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## Andante Largo (Apr 23, 2020)

Keeping these rules, I can only list five composers:

1. Fryderyk Chopin (1, 2, Grande Polonaise)
2. Sergei Rachmaninoff (1, 2, 3, 4)
3. Carl Reinecke (1, 2, 3, 4)
4. Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1, 2, 3, 4)
5. Julius Röntgen (2, 3, 4)


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Although a few of these fit your rules, I ignored them in general since most of the piano concertos I like are by composers who wrote fewer than 3. 

Stravinsky - Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments
Stravinsky - Capriccio for Piano & Orchestra
Bernstein - Symphony No. 2 "Age of Anxiety" (although called a symphony it is essentially a concertante work featuring piano)
Jean Cras - Piano Concerto
Rautavaara - Piano Concerto No. 2
Gershwin - Piano Concerto in F
Schmitt - Symphonie Concertante for Piano and Orchestra
Szymanokwski - Symphony Concertante, Op. 60
Ravel - Piano Concerto in G
Falla - Noches en los jardines de España
Martinu - Piano Concerto No. 3
Carl Reineke - Piano Concerto No. 3
Shostakovich - Piano concerto No. 1
Stenhammer - Piano concerto No. in D Minor
Hartmann - Piano Concerto
Wuorinen - Piano Concerto


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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

I won't duplicate everyone else's list with the usual suspects (although I heartily agree with them). But John Field's piano concertos still rank among my very happiest discoveries, and Mozart and Prokofiev at least merit a mention.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

1. Heitor Villa-Lobos
2. Alexander Tcherepnin
3. Einojuhani Rautavaara
4. Aarre Merikanto
5. Nikos Skalkottas
6. Andrew Imbrie
7. Béla Bartók
8. Charles Wuorinen
9. Geirr Tveitt
10. William Mathias


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## Bruckner Anton (Mar 10, 2016)

1. Mozart
2. Brahms (I would prefer his 2 quintessential masterpieces over some 20 moderately good pieces put together)
3. Beethoven
4. Bach (keyboard concertos)
5. Rachmaninov
6. Prokofiev
7. Saent-Saens
8. Liszt
9. Tchaikovsky
10. Medtner


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I would place Chopin's pair ahead of anyone not named J.S. Bach or Mozart though I wouldn't short Beethoven. Of the others I most like Mendelssohn, especially his youthful double concerto.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Bach
Mozart
Beethoven
Liszt
Bartok

Rachmaninov
Medtner
Prokofiev
Stravinsky (Capriccio, Concerto, Movements)

As for the 10th ... am in doubt, but it would be 20th century.


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## chu42 (Aug 14, 2018)

1. Brahms
2. Bartok
3. Prokofiev
4. Beethoven
5. Rachmaninov
6. Mozart
7. Medtner
8. Stravinsky
9. Rautavaara
10. Saint-Saëns


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

I don't want to pick holes but the basic rule seems contradictory - there has to be a minimum of three entries yet other concertante works can count if a composer didn't write three actual concertos? So a composer could qualify with one concerto and two concertante works but Brahms wouldn't purely because he didn't write a concertante work as well as the two concertos? Hmmm... 

Anyhow, one name not mentioned yet who I would nominate is Alfred Schnittke.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Andante Largo said:


> Johann Nepomuk Hummel (1, 2, 3, 4)


I've found the 5th (+2nd, 3rd) more memorable than the 4th, btw.


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Sumantra said:


> Minimum 3 Entries
> 
> 1. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 27)
> 2. Johann Sebastian Bach (1052, 1053, 1055, 1057, 1058, 1060, 1062)
> ...


The 3+ rule is strange as it leads to no Brahms (and quite a few others get excluded, too). But what surprises me about your preferences is why no Bartok 2 (especially as you include all of Prokofiev's and all of Tchaikovsky's - some of which are weak)? I would also tamper with your Mozart selections (no 25???)! My list by your rules would be

Bach (perhaps ... but are they really piano concertos?); Mozart (many); Beethoven (all); Bartok (all). I would struggle to find more than two Rachmaninovs or Prokfievs that I actually think of as favourites. But a list without those two and the two by Brahms, Stravinsky and Ravel is a very strange list. And then there are the cases of great piano concertos that stand alone in their composer's output - Schumann's preeminent among them.


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Enthusiast said:


> But a list without those two and the two by Brahms, Stravinsky and Ravel is a very strange list.


Strange?

I say bring 'em on. The stranger the better.


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## Sumantra (Feb 1, 2018)

...................................


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## Sumantra (Feb 1, 2018)

Enthusiast said:


> The 3+ rule is strange as it leads to no Brahms (and quite a few others get excluded, too). But what surprises me about your preferences is why no Bartok 2 (especially as you include all of Prokofiev's and all of Tchaikovsky's - some of which are weak)? I would also tamper with your Mozart selections (no 25???)! My list by your rules would be
> 
> Bach (perhaps ... but are they really piano concertos?); Mozart (many); Beethoven (all); Bartok (all). I would struggle to find more than two Rachmaninovs or Prokfievs that I actually think of as favourites. But a list without those two and the two by Brahms, Stravinsky and Ravel is a very strange list. And then there are the cases of great piano concertos that stand alone in their composer's output - Schumann's preeminent among them.


oh yes, you are free to tamper with as many as you want...I tamper your selection of all of Bertok as well (2 isn't that good, also with Mozart, i don't find 25 belongs among his bests)...don't care for Stravinsky's Piano concertos and don't care for Schumann's either...


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## Doublestring (Sep 3, 2014)

Tchaikovsky (1)
Beethoven (5)
Prokofiev (2, 3)
Rachmaninoff (2, 3)
Mozart (21, 23)
Liszt (2, Totentanz)
Chopin (1)
Ravel (G major)
Shostakovich (1)
Clara Schumann


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

Ignoring the minimum of 3 rule and excluding Bach. Also only considering proper "piano concertos", not concertante works.

1. Mozart
2. Beethoven
3. Brahms

------


4. Schumann
5. Prokofiev
6. Rachmaninoff
7. Ravel
8. Chopin
9. Ligeti
10. Scriabin

I'll add 11. Bartok - but I really need to familiarize myself more with them


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## golfer72 (Jan 27, 2018)

I thought the 3 minimum meant you had to list at least three composers. Thats how i read it anyway. IMO any Piano Cto list that doesnt include Brahms is shall i say suspect


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## Superflumina (Jun 19, 2020)

Enthusiast said:


> The 3+ rule is strange as it leads to no Brahms (and quite a few others get excluded, too). But what surprises me about your preferences is why no Bartok 2 (especially as you include all of Prokofiev's and all of Tchaikovsky's - some of which are weak)? I would also tamper with your Mozart selections (no 25???)! My list by your rules would be
> 
> Bach (perhaps ... but are they really piano concertos?); Mozart (many); Beethoven (all); Bartok (all). I would struggle to find more than two Rachmaninovs or Prokfievs that I actually think of as favourites. But a list without those two and the two by Brahms, Stravinsky and Ravel is a very strange list. And then there are the cases of great piano concertos that stand alone in their composer's output - Schumann's preeminent among them.


Schumann did write at least 2 other works that I know of for piano and orchestra. He didn't call them concertos but then again he almost didn't call his famous Piano Concerto a concerto either.


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