Aconcerto (/kənˈtʃɛərtoʊ/; pluralconcertos, orconcerti from the Italian plural) is, from thelate Baroque era, mostly understood as aninstrumental composition, written for one or moresoloists accompanied by anorchestra or otherensemble. The typical three-movement structure, a slow movement (e.g.,lento oradagio) preceded and followed by fast movements (e.g.,presto orallegro), became a standard from the early 18th century.[1][1]
Concertos from previous ages have remained a conspicuous part of the repertoire for concert performances and recordings. Less common has been the previously common practice of the composition of concertos by a performer to be performed personally, though the practice has continued via certain composer-performers such asDaniil Trifonov.
In the 17th century, sacred works for voices and orchestra were typically called concertos, as reflected byJ. S. Bach's usage of the title "concerto" for many of the works that are now known ascantatas.[12][13] The term "concerto" was initially used to denote works that involved voices and instruments in which the instruments had independent parts—as opposed to the Renaissance common practice in which instruments that accompanied voices only doubled the voice parts.[14] Examples of this earlier form of concerto includeGiovanni Gabrieli's "In Ecclesiis" orHeinrich Schütz's "Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich".[15]
The concerto began to take its modern shape in the late-Baroque period, beginning with theconcerto grosso form developed byArcangelo Corelli. Corelli's concertino group was two violins, a cello and basso continuo.[16] In J. S. Bach's FifthBrandenburg Concerto, for example, the concertino is a flute, a violin, and a harpsichord; although the harpsichord is a featured solo instrument, it also sometimes plays with theripieno, functioning as a continuo keyboard accompaniment.[17]
The concertos of the sons ofJohann Sebastian Bach, such asC. P. E. Bach, are perhaps the best links between those of the Baroque period and those of the Classical era. It is conventional to state that the first movements of concertos from the Classical period onwards follow the structure ofsonata form. Final movements are often inrondo form, as in J.S. Bach'sE Major Violin Concerto.[21]
C.P.E. Bach's keyboard concertos contain some virtuosic solo writing. Some of them have movements that run into one another without a break, and there are frequent cross-movement thematic references.[24] Mozart, as a child, made arrangements for keyboard and orchestra of four sonatas by now little-known composers. Then he arranged three sonata movements byJohann Christian Bach. By the time he was twenty, Mozart was able to write concerto ritornelli that gave the orchestra admirable opportunity for asserting its character in an exposition with some five or six sharply contrasted themes, before the soloist enters to elaborate on the material. Ofhis 27 piano concertos, the last 17 are highly appreciated.[25] Eleven cataloged keyboard concertos are attributed to Haydn, of which seven are considered genuine.[26] Beethoven wrote five concertos for piano and orchestra.
In the 19th century, the concerto as a vehicle forvirtuosic display flourished, and concertos became increasingly complex and ambitious works. Whilst performances of typical concertos in the baroque era lasted about ten minutes, those by Beethoven could last half an hour or longer. The termconcertino, or the GermanKonzertstuck ("Concert Piece") began to be used to designate smaller pieces not considered large enough to be considered a full concerto, though the distinction has never been formalised and many Concertinos are still longer than the original Baroque concertos.
During the Romantic era the cello became increasingly used as a concerto instrument; though the violin and piano remained the most frequently used.Beethoven contributed to the repertoire of concertos for more than one soloist with aTriple Concerto for piano, violin, cello and orchestra while later in the century,Brahms wrote aDouble Concerto for violin, cello and orchestra.
These changes also affected the concerto as a musical form. Beside more or less radical effects on musical language, they led to a redefinition of the concept of virtuosity that included new and extended instrumental techniques and a focus on previously neglected aspects of sound such aspitch,timbre anddynamics. In some cases, they also brought about a new approach to the role of soloists and their relation to the orchestra.
Two great innovators of early 20th-century music,Schoenberg andStravinsky, both wrote violin concertos. The material in Schoenberg's concerto, like that inBerg's, is linked by thetwelve-tone serial method. In the 20th century, particularly after the Second World War, the cello enjoyed an unprecedented popularity. As a result, its concertante repertoire caught up with those of the piano and the violin both in terms of quantity and quality.
The 20th century also witnessed a growth of the concertante repertoire of instruments, some of which had seldom or never been used in this capacity, and even a concerto for wordless coloratura soprano byReinhold Glière.[28] As a result, almost all classical instruments now have a concertante repertoire. Among the works of the prolific composerAlan Hovhaness may be notedPrayer of St. Gregory for trumpet and strings, though it is not a concerto in the usual sense of the term. In the later 20th century the concerto tradition was continued by composers such asMaxwell Davies, whose series ofStrathclyde Concertos exploit some of the instruments less familiar as soloists.
Other composers of this era adopted a neoclassical rejection of specific features which typically characterized the concerto form during the Baroque or Romantic periods. Several of them achieved this objective by incorporating various musical elements from the realm ofjazz within the structure of the concerto. Included in this group were:Aaron Copland (Concerto for Piano, 1926),Maurice Ravel (Concerto for the Left Hand, 1929),Igor Stravinsky (Ebony Concerto for clarinet and jazz band, 1945) andGeorge Gershwin (Concerto in F, 1925).[40] Still others called upon the orchestra itself to function as the primary virtuosic force within the concerto form. This approach was adopted byBéla Bartók in hisConcerto for Orchestra as well by other composers of the period including:Walter Piston (1933),Zoltan Kodaly (1939),Michael Tippet (1962) andElliott Carter (1969).[40]
Early Romantic traits can be found in the violin concertos ofViotti, but it isSpohr's twelve violin concertos, written between 1802 and 1827, that truly embrace the Romantic spirit with their melodic as well as their dramatic qualities.[42]
Dutilleux'sL'Arbre des songes has proved an important addition to the repertoire and a fine example of the composer's atonal yet melodic style.[relevant?]
The 'core' repertoire—performed the most of any cello concertos—are byElgar,Dvořák, Saint-Saëns, Haydn,Shostakovich and Schumann, but many more concertos are performed nearly as often.
Baroque era:
Vivaldi's cello concertosRV 398–403, 405–414 and 416–424
Classical era:
Haydn wrote two cello concertos (for cello, oboes, horns, and strings), which are the most important works in that genre of the classical era.[47]
Antonín Dvořák's cello concerto ranks among the supreme examples from the Romantic era whileRobert Schumann's focuses on the lyrical qualities of the instrument.
The instrument was also popular with composers of the Franco-Belgian tradition:Saint-Saëns andVieuxtemps wrote two cello concertos each andLalo andJongen one.
Bohemian composerFrancesco Antonio Rosetti composed several solo and double horn concertos. He was a significant contributor to the genre of horn concertos in the 18th century. Most of his outstanding horn concertos were composed between 1782 and 1789 for the Bohemian duo Franz Zwierzina and Joseph Nage while at the Bavarian court of Oettingen-Wallerstein. One of his best-known works in this genre is his Horn Concerto in E flat major C49/K III:36. It consists of three movements: 1. Allegro moderato 2. Romance 3. Rondo. Many common features of thegalant style are present in Rosetti's music and composing style. In his E-flat horn concerto, we hear periodic and short phrases, galant harmonic rhythm and melodic line reduction.[71] Rosetti's influence on the 18th century composers, musicians and music was considerable. At the Bavarian court of Oettingen-Wallerstein, his music was often performed by the Wallerstein ensembles. In Paris, his compositions were performed by the best ensembles of the city, including the orchestra of the Concert Spirituel. His publishers were Le Menu et Boyer and Sieber. According toH. C. Robbins Landon (Mozart scholar),[72] Rosetti's horn concertos might have been a model for Mozart's horn concertos.[73][relevant?]
Beethoven's five piano concertos increase the technical demands made on the soloist. The last two are particularly remarkable, integrating the concerto into a large symphonic structure with movements that frequently run into one another. HisPiano Concerto No. 4 starts with a statement by the piano, after which the orchestra enters in a foreign key, to present what would normally be the openingtutti. The work has a lyrical character. The slow movement is a dramatic dialogue between the soloist and the orchestra. HisPiano Concerto No. 5 has the basic rhythm of a Viennese militarymarch. There is no lyrical second subject, but in its place a continuous development of the opening material.[78]
The piano concertos ofCramer,Field,Düssek,Woelfl,Ries, andHummel provide a link from the Classical concerto to the Romantic concerto.
Chopin wrote two piano concertos in which the orchestra is relegated to an accompanying role. Schumann, despite being a pianist-composer, wrote a piano concerto in which virtuosity is never allowed to eclipse the essential lyrical quality of the work. The gentle, expressive melody heard at the beginning on woodwind and horns (after the piano's heralding introductory chords) bears the material for most of the argument in the first movement. In fact, argument in the traditional developmental sense is replaced by a kind of variation technique in which soloist and orchestra interweave their ideas.[79]
Grieg's concerto likewise begins in a striking manner after which it continues in a lyrical vein.[81]
Saint-Saëns wrote five piano concertos and orchestra between 1858 and 1896, in a classical vein.
Brahms'sFirst Piano Concerto in D minor (pub 1861) was the result of an immense amount of work on a mass of material originally intended for a symphony. HisSecond Piano Concerto in B♭ major (1881) has four movements and is written on a larger scale than any earlier concerto. Like his violin concerto, it is symphonic in proportions.
Fewer piano concertos were written in the late Romantic Period.[82] ButSergei Rachmaninoff wrote four piano concertos between 1891 and 1926. HisSecond andThird, being the most popular of the four, went on to become among the most famous in the piano repertoire.[83]
Béla Bartók also wrote three piano concertos. Like their violin counterparts, they show the various stages in his musical development. Bartok's also rearranged his chamber piece,Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, into aConcerto for Two Pianos and Percussion, adding orchestral accompaniment.
Cristóbal Halffter wrote a prize-winning neoclassical Piano Concerto in 1953, and a second Piano Concerto in 1987–88.
Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote a concerto for piano, though it was later reworked as a concerto for two pianos and orchestra—both versions have been recorded
Benjamin Britten's concerto for piano (1938) is a prominent work from his early period.
György Ligeti's concerto (1988) has a synthetic quality: it mixes complex rhythms, the composer's Hungarian roots and his experiments with micropolyphony from the 1960s and 1970s.[85]
Witold Lutosławski's piano concerto, completed in the same year, alternates between playfulness and mystery. It also displays a partial return to melody after the composer's aleatoric period.[85]
Russian composerRodion Shchedrin has written six piano concertos.
Finnish composerEinojuhani Rautavaara wrote three piano concertos, the third one dedicated toVladimir Ashkenazy, who played and conducted the world première.
In the Baroque era, two violins and one cello formed the standardconcertino of aconcerto grosso. In the classical era, thesinfonia concertante replaced the concerto grosso genre, although concertos for two or three soloists were still composed too. From the Romantic era works for multiple instrumental soloists and orchestra were again commonly called concerto.
In the 20th and 21st centuries, several composers wrote concertos fororchestra. In these works, different sections and/or instruments of the orchestra or concert band are treated at one point or another as soloists with emphasis on solo sections and/or instruments changing during the piece. Some examples include those written by:
^abYannick Cheval; Philippe Wahl (2003).Nathalie Sarraute. Du tropisme. Erscheinungsort nicht ermittelbar: Presses universitaires de Lyon.ISBN978-2-7297-1080-4.
^Concerto grosso. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. 2001.
^"John J. Serry, Sr., Collection"(PDF). Eastman School of Music - University of Rochester - Sibley Music Library. "Concerto in C Major (1967) for Free Bass Accordion " Folder 15 & 16 p. 10
^Trevor & Wallace, Trevor & John (29 November 2011).The Trombone (Second ed.). Yale University Press.ISBN9780300146021.{{cite book}}:Check|isbn= value: checksum (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
Eggink, J.; Brown, G.J. (2004). "Instrument recognition in accompanied sonatas and concertos".2004 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing. Vol. 4. pp. iv–217–iv-220.doi:10.1109/ICASSP.2004.1326802.ISBN0-7803-8484-9.S2CID13003660.
Lee, Douglas A. (2002).Masterworks of 20th-century music : the modern repertory of the symphony orchestra (1 ed.). New York: Routledge. pp. 387–400.ISBN978-0-415-93847-1.
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Tovey, Donald Francis (1911). "Concerto". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 825–826.
