# Lesser Known Piano Concerti Worth Listening



## Sol Invictus (Sep 17, 2016)

Admittedly, I haven't listened to all of it, but Moszkowski's piano concerto is quite enjoyable. Which others can you think of TC?


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Off the top of my head, Dohnanyi's concerto no.1 in E minor and Rimsky-Korsakov's one-movement concerto in C sharp minor are both worth listening to. For something less than a full-scale concerto, try Balakirev's Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes.


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## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

Mathieu fourth piano concerto.


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## chill782002 (Jan 12, 2017)

Piano Concertos 1, 2 and 3 by Stephan Elmas.


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## jailhouse (Sep 2, 2016)

Scriabin's is really good


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## Portamento (Dec 8, 2016)

Stanford: Piano _Concerto No. 3_ (1919)


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Treat yourself to the four piano concertos of Litolff, beautiful and vibrant works clearly revealing that Litolff was born to write concertos. All four are available on 2 separate Hyperion CD's; they are numbered 2 thru 5; concerto no. 1 has never been found.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

I really enjoyed Martinu's 5th piano concerto when I listened to it earlier today


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Nikolai Medtner's 2nd concerto was a pleasant discovery.
James MacMillan's recent 2nd concerto is one of my favourites. It started off as a single movement string quintet, Cumnock Fair, then he received a commission from the New York City Ballet to expand the work into a 3 movement concerto to use as the score to a Christopher Wheeldon ballet.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Hilding Rosenberg Piano Concertos No. 1 & 2.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Michael Tippett's.


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

I always liked the Amy Beach concerto.






The MacDowell 2nd Concerto is also quite nice.


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## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

Busoni's piano concerto, Op. 39


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## JAS (Mar 6, 2013)

My favorite "discovery" of the Hyperion Romantic Concerto series: Ingnaz Brull, Piano Concerto No. 2 in C major (OP. 24). A light but very enjoyable concerto.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

TwoFlutesOneTrumpet said:


> Busoni's piano concerto, Op. 39


Duh ... of course!!!


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Don't know if John Field's concertos should be considered "lesser known," but some are quite delightful.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Moszkowski: Piano Concerto in E major, Op. 59.
Enjoy!


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Well, this OP relates to my forgotten romantic piano concerto Adagio series.

http://www.talkclassical.com/46981-forgotten-romantic-adagios-andantes.html


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

Dvorak's is the lesser known of his concertos, but it's beautiful.


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## Animal the Drummer (Nov 14, 2015)

Yes. Its slow movement in particular is one of his finest IMHO.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

John Ireland's concerto.

Also, the whole Hyperion romantic piano concertos series is well worth exploring.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

Heliogabo said:


> Dvorak's is the lesser known of his concertos, but it's beautiful.


András Schiff playing please.


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## Guest (Apr 4, 2017)

JAS said:


> My favorite "discovery" of the Hyperion Romantic Concerto series: Ingnaz Brull, Piano Concerto No. 2 in C major (OP. 24). A light but very enjoyable concerto.


I have this but haven't listened to it. Will do so!

I am not sure this qualifies as lesser known, but I really enjoy Paderewski's piano concerto.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

*Try:*


*Sir Arnold Bax*: Winter Legends & Symphonic Variations.
*Herbert Howells*: Piano Concerti I & II.
*Alexander Glazunov*: Piano Concerti I & II.
*Emil von Sauer*: Piano Concerto no. I.
*Sergei Lyapunov*: Piano Concerti I & II, plus Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes (Hyperion).
*Boris Lyatoshynsky*: Slavic Concerto.
*Xaver Scharwenka*: Piano Concerto no. I.
*Zygmunt Stojowski*: Piano Concerti I & II (Hyperion).
*Anton Rubinstein*: Piano Concerto no. V.
*Mily Balakirev*: Piano Concerti I & II.
*Busoni*: Piano Concerto.
*Max Reger*: Piano Concerto in F.
*Cyril Scott*: Piano Concerti I & II.
*Kurt Atterberg*: Piano Concerto (get the CPO version).
*Edgar Bainton*: Concerto Fantasia.
*Alberto Ginastera*: Piano Concerti I, II, III.
*Sergei Bortkiewicz*: Piano Concerto no. I.
*Nikolai Medtner*: All three of them (but esp. no. III, which is hauntingly beautiful).
*Samuel Barber*: Piano Concerto.
*Amy Marcy Cheney Beach*: Piano Concerto.
*Lydia Auster:* Piano Concerto. 




*Ilmari Hannikainen:* Piano Concerto (1917). 




I think that should do it.
Enjoy.


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## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

Orfeo said:


> *Try:*
> 
> 
> *Sir Arnold Bax*: Winter Legends & Symphonic Variations.
> ...


I haven't heard of 9 of the composers on that list. :lol:


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## Klassik (Mar 14, 2017)

If you're looking for something different, try Flor Peeters' Concerto for Organ and Piano, Op. 74. The BIS recording performed by Jansson and Fagius is excellent.


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

Hindemith's _The Four Temperaments_ for piano and strings (1940) - as it was written for a ballet it's not strictly speaking a concerto but nonetheless it's a very enjoyable five-movement work in theme and variation form.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

I forgot to add *George Antheil's* two (the first a Stravinskian tease, the second more lyrical & neoclassical).

Then there's *Poulenc's* Concerto and Concerto for Piano Duet (with a lovely, sublime second movement). His Concert Champetre (yeah for harpsichord) is a fun listen.


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## DeepR (Apr 13, 2012)

Sol Invictus said:


> Admittedly, I haven't listened to all of it, but *Moszkowski's piano concerto* is quite enjoyable. Which others can you think of TC?


He composed 2 piano concerto's.
Check out No. 1, Op. 3 if you haven't. It was recently released for the first time. I enjoy it a lot.

http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_CDA68109


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## Haydn man (Jan 25, 2014)

I will put in another plug for John Field


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

I think Vaughan Williams' Piano Concerto should be heard more often.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Rawsthorne 1 & 2, Barber, RVW, Delius, Lutoslawski, Khachaturian.


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## starthrower (Dec 11, 2010)

Norgard - concerto in due tempi
Ernst Krenek concertos 2 & 3
Egon Wellesz


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## Heliogabo (Dec 29, 2014)

Carlos Chavez Piano concerto is a quite intriguing piece, check it out with Osorio as pianist, if possible.


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

Vaneyes said:


> Rawsthorne 1 & 2, Barber, RVW, Delius, Lutoslawski, Khachaturian.


Hear, hear to all of those. And John Field.
I have never understood why Barber's PC is not one of the 'mainstream' repertoire concerti. It's a brilliant piece of shifting moods and modes, which gives the pianist ample opportunity to show their technical and interpretive skills.


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

"Chopin continued to express, in both words and deeds, his admiration for Hummel. For example, on December 10, 1842, five years after Hummel's death, Chopin would proclaim that Hummel was one of the "masters we all recognize." It is noteworthy that the only other names on Chopin's list were Mozart and Beethoven. Chopin also showed his high regard by using so many of Hummel's works to teach his students, as his pupil Adolf Gutmann recalled: "Chopin held that Clementi's Gradus ad Parnassum, Bach's pianoforte fugues, and Hummel's compositions were the key to pianoforte-playing, and he considered a training in these composers a fit preparation for his own works. The two great pianists were also in complete agreement on many aspects of playing the keyboard. One was fingering, a matter of great importance to Chopin, who wrote in his own unfinished piano method "everything is a matter of knowing good fingering."

"William Mason, one of Liszt's American pupils, tells us in his book Touch and Technic (1889) that Liszt considered a "two-finger exercise" by Hummel to be the source of his technique. The exercise consisted of playing a scale with two fingers, alternating accented and unaccented notes and using an elastic touch by pulling the fingers in towards the palm. Liszt's high opinion of Hummel as an artist and as a man never diminished. It is evident in a letter he wrote to Weimar's Grand Duke Carl Alexander in 1860, reminding his employer that "he should be proud to create works that resemble [Hummel's]."

"Schubert must have been delighted to finally have personal contact with the composer of music he had known and admired for more than a decade. One of the works that Schubert knew quite well was Hummel's Septet in D minor, op. 74, his most popular chamber music composition. Schubert, in fact, used the quintet version of this work as the model for his famous Trout Quintet. The solo piano music that Schubert composed between 1816 and his death in 1828 also reveals the strong influence of Hummel's brilliant, virtuosic style of piano writing, culminating in the last three piano sonatas (D. 958-60). Schubert intended to dedicate these works to Hummel but died before they were published."

"the young Schumann, the aspiring virtuoso pianist studying with Friedrich Wieck in Leipzig in 1829, desperately wanted to become Hummel's student. Despite repeated attempts, he never realized this goal, but Hummel would remain Schumann's idol through-out his student years. He was also his role model, as we read in Schumann's letter to his mother of 15 May 1831: "I can have only four goals: Kapellmeister, music teacher, virtuoso and composer. With Hummel, for example, all of these are combined." Schumann's diary also tells us that he practiced Hummel's Clavierschule with a devotion bordering on obsession, once even writing that he planned to play all the exercises in succession. He maintained a lasting admiration for a select group of Hummel's works, such as the piano concertos in A minor and B minor, the Septet in D minor, op. 74, and the Piano Sonata in F-sharp minor, op. 81. The F-sharp minor sonata had a particularly significant impact on Schumann's early piano compositions, as can be seen by the striking similarity of the examples below (Fig. 1). Schumann acknowledged his admiration for Hummel's F-sharp minor sonata in his Neue Zeitschrift für Musik of April 26, 1839, predicting, "this sonata will alone immortalize his name.""

"Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, and Chopin - these emblematic symbols of the Romantic era are indeed indebted to Hummel. The same can be said for many other 19th-century composers, including César Franck, who graduated as a prize-winning pianist from the Paris Conservatoire by playing Hummel's music. Some critics have even found similarities between Hummel's F-sharp minor sonata and the Piano Sonata in F-sharp minor, op. 2, of Brahms. Hummel the Classicist, Hummel the Romantic - both descriptions are correct. His life spanned two eras, and so did his music."

-excerpts from "Hummel and the Romantics" by Mark Kroll


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)




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## MatthewWeflen (Jan 24, 2019)

This set of John Field's piano concertos fairly blew my mind.


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## Nawdry (Dec 27, 2020)

Sol Invictus said:


> Thread: Lesser Known Piano Concerti Worth Listening


Two, both 20thC, rarely heard, that I particularly recommend:

Miklos Rozsa: Piano Concerto, Op 31, for piano + orchestra
Samual Zyman: Concerto for Piano & Chamber Ensemble


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Christian Sinding : Concerto in D-flat major for piano and orchestra Op. 6
Wonderful music


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## ORigel (May 7, 2020)

Norbert Burgmuller's


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Lesser Known Piano Concerti Worth Listening To?

My first thought: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra "In Time of War", by John LaMontaine. The 1959 Pulitzer Prize for Music winner.

The Composers Recordings Inc. (CRI) - CRI SD 189 -- recording is a treasure. It features Karen Keys on piano with conductor Guy Fraser Harrison conducting the Oklahoma City Symphony Orchestra.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

Howells - Piano Concerto 2

Scintillating from the get-go!


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## RobertJTh (Sep 19, 2021)

Szymanowski's 4th symphony "Concertante" (1932).

It's a piano concerto in all but name - the composer probably just chose the old baroque "sinfonia concertante" genre because he wanted to emphasize the importance of the orchestral part, but also because it isn't a virtuoso concerto. Szymanowski was a rather mediocre pianist, so in order to write a piece for his own use, he needed to simplify the piano writing.
Nevertheless, it's a masterpiece and without doubt Szymanowski's greatest symphonic work. The music is complex, multi-layered and rewards (even requires) multiple listening sessions.


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## Xenophiliu (Jan 2, 2022)

Of course one man's lesser-known is another's well-known:

John Foulds: Dynamic Triptych
George Lloyd - there are 4, but the expansive 3rd and lighter 4th are my preferences. All Lloyd is great though...
Lukas Foss - early works from him, so the PC's are a little easier to grasp.


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