Concerto
A work for solo instrument(s) and orchestra; also a public music performance.
What it means
Concerto refers both to the genre of a work for one or more solo instruments and orchestra, and, in everyday English, to any public music performance before an audience.
Musical use
As a genre, the concerto traces back to the Italian Baroque, where the alternation of solo and tutti groups in the concerto grosso, as in Corelli and Vivaldi, gradually gave rise to the solo concerto featuring a single, virtuosically treated instrument. The classical three-movement fast–slow–fast form became standard, usually with a cadenza near the end of the first movement, where the soloist improvises brilliantly without the orchestra. The solo concerto differs from the symphony, which has no continuous solo instrument set against the orchestra, and from chamber music, where all performers share equal roles.
Performance practice
As a soloist, pay attention to the interplay with the orchestra: a concerto lives on dialogue, not virtuosity alone — listen to the tutti before you re-enter.