# Piano concertos you would like to see performed more often



## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

If I were a good enough pianist, I would personally advocate most strongly the following concertos:

Saint Saens 4th piano concerto(should be one of the most well known pieces in the literature)
Medtner's 2nd and 3rd piano concertos
Alexander Tcherepnin's 6th piano concerto
Hummel's A minor piano concerto
Field's A flat and C minor Piano concertos
CPE Bach's C minor keyboard concerto, the one that foreshadows Beethoven's 4th with its tricks in the 2nd movement(I would play on modern piano). Plenty of CPE concertos to go around.


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

Hummel 
Bach - bwv1053-1055
Menotti
Scharwenka
Paderewski
Strauss Burlesque


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

Alkan's concerto for solo piano played with an orchestra.


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## Webernite (Sep 4, 2010)

Prokofiev 5, maybe? I'm not actually sure how often it's performed, but I gather not that often.


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## Webernite (Sep 4, 2010)

And I've always thought that the D minor and the F minor are weaker than the less performed Bach harpsichord concertos.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Webernite said:


> Prokofiev 5, maybe? I'm not actually sure how often it's performed, but I gather not that often.


Because it is a class A Mt. Everest of interpretation, technique and stamina. Watch the youtube clip of Richter performing the last movement. When Richter looks like a child, tongue sticking our of corner of mouth, quizzical look on face, while executing those last few measures, and you know he has practiced, done his homework, and is 'on top of it,' that gives us all an idea of what more might be involved for lesser mortals. [I'm probably near infamous for saying I hear no musicality from Marc-Andre Hamelin, in any recording of anything from him I have yet heard, so please refrain from suggesting him as a proponent of this work.]


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## Webernite (Sep 4, 2010)

I admire Hamelin for playing unusual repertoire, but yeah, not such a great pianist. Even his virtuosity is a bit overrated (he says Boulez's Sonata No. 2 is too difficult for him; quite a few other pianists have played it).


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

The J.S. Bach concerti, specifically the Conzert fur zwie Klavier, C - major, but all the rest too, but on regular symphonic programming, not specialized 'period concerts.'

Those are all for keyboard(s) and strings, one reason they might be ignored, the wind players of any organization not having anything to do in that one work, and perhaps both management and audience feeling they 'are not getting their money's worth,' if the full band is not used all the time.

Prokofiev ~ Piano Concerto No. 4. This is the left-hand concerto, pithy, dry, lively and wonderful, in a very 'neoclassical' mode. Great piece (as 'great' as the other four) which gets very few performances, not even that many airings on classical FM stations.

Stating the obvious, but a similar reason for less play as the Prokofiev 5, ie. a big bear and a power and stamina marathon, Bartok No. 2

Stravinsky:

Movements for Piano and Orchestra. A brief(er) work, wherein the composer 'out-Weberns Webern' while retaining the stamp of his personality. Very fine piece. Likelihood of lack of exposure is the same as for all highly 'refined' serial works such as Webern's - not yet generally 'audience friendly.'

Capriccio for piano and orchestra. Plucky, intelligent and humerous, a great piece which also does not get nearly enough play. [If a Stravinsky piano + orchestra work is slated, his concerto for piano and winds, not nearly as strong a piece, imo, takes the center stage almost all the time.]









Concerto for two pianos solo - really duo-piano repertoire, but a monumental, 'important,' and beautiful piece I simply wish more people knew.

Poulenc:

Piano Concerto, wonderful, merely overshadowed and out-voted by his popular two-piano concerto.

Aubade, for piano and eighteen instruments. Very strong piece, a ballet score - ergo in a format of episodic movements, starts with a fantastic solo piano toccata, the duration of the rest of the piece has the piano in an obbligato role. Reasons it is done less - it is chamber music. more truly 'concertante' than concerto. It takes a certain disposition world-class player who is willing to take the subsuming role of obbligato executant vs. 'star' soloist. [Commissioned by the Princess de Polignac as a ballet for performance in her small home theater, this dictated a small pit orchestra: the rest of the disposition to fit that bill may have also had Poulenc giving an acknowledging tip of the hat to that other masterly French composer who got so much out of a remarkable 11 instrument ensemble, with some players doubling and two pianos, the original Saint-Saens Carnival of the animals
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Carnival_of_the_Animals

If any composer wants to see a masterly use of an unusually 'equal' chamber ensemble of winds and strings, Poulenc's score is an exceptionally brilliant example.]









De Falla's 'Noches en los Jardines de España' is another concertante work with a fully obbligato piano role. Conservative 20th century, and 'criticized' as being perhaps 'too pretty / beautiful, it is also a fine piece. Again, whether it is the disposition of the pianist or their agent, it might be perceived as less high-profile if a performer is 'sitting in' with the orchestra' vs. soloing in front of the orchestra. the piece is so audience friendly it is surprising it is not scheduled more often.

Ravel ~ Concerto in D, equally if not a greater masterpiece than the G major concerto... thinking it is just a matter of the right pianist having the right left-hand technique, which keeps this one at a lower rate of frequency of performance.

Germaine Taillefaire ~ Piano Concerto No. 1 -- A delightful and very pleasant neoclassical work with a classical proportion orchestra. 









Concertinos ~ 'Mini-concerti' - often of a lighter musical nature.

Two earliesh-mid 20th Century works need more play - and the contemporary audiences, by now, are completely 'up' for the two as being wholly 'accessible.'

Honegger ~ Concertino.





Jean Françaix ~ Concertino (short, sweet, as light as meringue, and when first written it became one of the most popular and oft-played throughout Europe for about a decade.) 





Samuel Barber Piano Concerto ~ one helluva late-romantic / modern piece, but literally owned by John Browning for whom it was specifically composed, for two years, and since, he has figuratively owned it. This piece, too, should now now be completely audience friendly to all but the most reactionary conservative. It is likely that until Browning fully retires, others may not feel it either necessary to perform it, or they would have to stand up to his 'definitive' performance(s) when the reviews come in.













[With any work still under copyright, royalties or fees for concert performance becomes a real factor in choosing to program these works.]


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Saint-Saens 2 & 5
Barber
Bartok 1 - 3
Britten
Delius
Khachaturian
Lutoslawski
Poulenc (2 pianos)
Rachmaninov 1 & 4
Ravel (Left-hand)
Rawsthorne 1 & 2
Schnittke 2 & 3
Schoenberg
Shostakovich 1 & 2
R. Strauss (Burleske)
RVW


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

violadude's helicopter concerto


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Cnote11 said:


> violadude's helicopter concerto


OT, as is the Motorcycle Concerto.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Ferruccio Busoni's piano concerto is a remarkable work which is very rarelly performed , and it's a whale of a concerto ! Over an hour long , in 5 movements with a men's chorus in the finale .
Undoubtedly the longest in the repertoire , and monstrously difficult for the solloist .
It had one of its rare performances just a couple of months or so ago in New York , with a well-known 
pianist whose name I can't recall at the moment conducted by Leon Botstein, with the American symphony orchestra . Botstein has been giving all sorts of interesting rarities by so many different composers a chance to be heard ,including some of the most obscure operas , and we are all in his debt . He's also recorded some of them . You never know what to expect from him ! 
As far as I know, the only previous New York performance in recent memory in New York was with Garrick Ohlsson , Dohnanyi and the Cleveland orchestra back in the late 80s, and this was recorded in Cleveland by Telarc . There are several other recordings , and the first was for EMI with the late,lamented John Ogdon and the Royal Philharmonic conducted by Daniel Revenaugh , which I remember from the LP era .
I've heard a story that Busoni wanted the men's chorus to be in the nude ! He was some weird guy !


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

superhorn said:


> Ferruccio Busoni's piano concerto is a remarkable work which is very rarelly performed , and it's a whale of a concerto ! Over an hour long , in 5 movements with a men's chorus in the finale .
> Undoubtedly the longest in the repertoire , and monstrously difficult for the solloist .
> It had one of its rare performances just a couple of months or so ago in New York , with a well-known
> pianist whose name I can't recall at the moment conducted by Leon Botstein, with the American symphony orchestra . Botstein has been giving all sorts of interesting rarities by so many different composers a chance to be heard ,including some of the most obscure operas , and we are all in his debt . He's also recorded some of them . You never know what to expect from him !
> ...


I'd forgotten about the Busoni, not that I'd want to hear it again. I briefly owned that PC (1904) on Telarc, as well as Millennium Classics' "Indian Fantasy" for piano and orchestra (1913), with Mitchell/Strickland.

Hey, the nude thing could still happen.

View attachment 4698


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Busoni was a great composer, but I don't like that concerto really.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

The Busoni PC is not for everyone, but for me, it grew on repeatred hearings .It's an acquired taste .


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

The Ireland concerto. Love it, would love to hear it at a performance.


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## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

Lou Harrison's PC,although Keith Jarrett set a pretty good benchmark for the piece.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Dodecaplex said:


> Alkan's concerto for solo piano played with an orchestra.


You are never right are you I wonder what the problem can be.?


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

What?

.....


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Here's 5 favorites of mine which I feel could benefit by increased performances/advocacy:


 Charles Koechlin's BALLADE for Piano and Orchestra
 CHOROS No.11 by Villa-Lobos
 Stanislaw Skrowaczewski's CONCERTO NICOLO
 SYMPHONY No.4 "Symphonie Concertante" Opus 60 by Szymanowski
 Florent Schmitt's SYMPHONIE CONCERTANTE for Orchestra and Piano

These are essentially a Piano Concerto in all but name...


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## everythingthrume (May 1, 2012)

Mozart 365, not that it isn't played often, I just need more.


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## Romantic Geek (Dec 25, 2009)

Mozart PC #23
MacDowell PC #2
Grieg PC (I only got to see the first movement live)
Beethoven PC #3
Saint-Saens PC #2
Beach PC
Gershwin PC in F


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