Piano concerto

What it means

A piano concerto is a work for piano and orchestra in which the solo instrument confronts the body of sound. The usual layout comprises three movements: a weighty first movement, a slow middle movement, and a fast finale, often as a rondo. In the first movement the ritornello principle of the Baroque concerto combines with sonata form, so that orchestral introduction, solo exposition, development, recapitulation, and cadenza form an order of their own.

Musical use

The genre developed in the eighteenth century and became one of the most significant of all in the nineteenth, which is connected with the development of the instrument: only the powerfully built grand piano could assert itself against a large orchestra. Musically the concerto offers a field of tension — interplay and confrontation, leading and accompanying, virtuoso brilliance and chamber-music refinement. The cadenza before the end of the first movement is historically the place for improvisation; later it is written out. In the twentieth century the layout is varied in many ways.

The piano concerto developed in the eighteenth century out of the harpsichord concerto. Mozart wrote over twenty piano concertos and made the genre a high point of the Classical period. In the nineteenth century, concertos by Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky became showpieces of the virtuosos.

Performance practice

Work up the orchestral parts as well, not only the piano part: whoever knows what is happening at the same time plays differently. Plan the balance early, especially in dense tuttis, and settle with the conductor where the orchestra draws back. Practise entries after orchestral passages with a recording or a second piano so that they sit securely. Choose the cadenza deliberately and coordinate it. Watch the lid of the instrument and the placement, because both strongly influence its ability to assert itself.

Bear in mind that the layout of the first movement combines two traditions and the orchestral introduction has a function of its own: it presents the material before the soloist takes it up. Whoever knows only the solo part misses this connection. Work up the score along with it therefore.

Before rehearsal, check whether the solo part agrees with the used edition in the orchestral score.