Keyboard concerto

The phrase keyboard concerto may indicate a harpsichord, piano, or organ concerto, or, rarely, a work suitable for performance on more than one keyboard instrument.

Harpsicord concertos

Harpsichord concertos were written throughout the Baroque era, notably by Johann Sebastian Bach: see harpsichord concertos (J. S. Bach).

Concertos began to be written for the harpsichord in the baroque period, when it was a common instrument, but though Johann Sebastian Bach wrote a number, it was never as popular as string or wind instruments in the concerto role, probably due to its relative lack of volume when in an orchestra. In this context, harpsichords were more usually employed as continuo instruments, playing a harmonised bass part in nearly all orchestral music, and often played by the director of the orchestra.

Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No.5 in D major, BWV 1050, may be the first instance in which the harpsichord appeared as a concerto soloist. It appears in this work to be breaking out of its usual continuo role, which is alternated with prominent solo obbligato episodes in all three movements. Most notable is the first movement where the harpsichord, after rapid scales up and down the length of its range, embarks on an immense solo cadenza which lasts for about 3-4 minutes, while the orchestra is silent.

The concerto for solo harpsichord

It was also popular at this time to adapt Italian concertos for other instruments (such as violin and orchestra) for solo harpsichord (or organ), something that Bach did with many of Vivaldi's concertos. Bach's Italian concerto BWV 971 is in this transcription style, though it was written as an original piece for harpsichord. The concerto transcriptions Bach made for harpsichord are listed as BWV 972–987 (see List of compositions by Johann Sebastian Bach).

Piano concerto

The classical and romantic eras

As the piano developed and became accepted, composers naturally started writing concerti for it. This happened in the 18th century, and so corresponded to the Classical music era. The most important composer in the development of the form in these early stages was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart's body of masterly piano concerti put his stamp firmly on the genre well into the Romantic era.

Mozart wrote many of his 27 solo piano concerti for himself to perform (he also wrote concerti for two and three pianos). With the development of the piano virtuoso many composer-pianists did likewise, notably Ludwig van Beethoven, Carl Maria von Weber, Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Sergei Prokofiev, and also the somewhat lesser-known Johann Nepomuk Hummel and John Field. Many other Romantic composers wrote pieces in the form, well-known examples including the concerti by Robert Schumann, Edvard Grieg, Edward MacDowell, Johannes Brahms and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

Composers continually extended the scope of the piano concerto. For instance, Henry Charles Litolff explored the symphonic possibilities of the form, and Ferruccio Busoni added a male choir in the last movement of his hour-long concerto.

The few well-known piano concerti which dominate today's concert programs and discographies account for only a minority of the repertoire which proliferated on the European music scene during the 19th century. Critical opinion has often dismissed the bulk of the Romantic piano concerto repertoire for its vapid mediocrity (many pieces were slavish variations on opera tunes).

Form

A classical piano concerto is often in three movements:

A quick opening movement in sonata form including a cadenza (which may be improvised by the soloist).
A slow movement
A lively finale in rondo or sonata form

The 20th century and contemporary works

The piano concerto form survived through the 20th century into the 21st, with examples being written by Béla Bartók, Arnold Schoenberg, Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, Dmitri Shostakovich, Samuel Barber, Michael Tippett, Witold Lutosławski, George Gershwin, György Ligeti, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Leroy Anderson, Philip Glass, Lera Auerbach and others.

There are examples of piano concerti written to commissions by pianists. Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm during World War I, on resuming his musical career asked a number of composers to write pieces for him which required the pianist to use his left hand only. The results of these commissions include the concertante pieces for orchestra and piano left hand by Benjamin Britten, Franz Schmidt, Maurice Ravel, Sergei Prokofiev (Piano Concerto No. 4) and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

With the revival of the harpsichord in the 20th century, harpsichordists commissioned new pieces for the new 'revival' instrument: Wanda Landowska commissioned concerti from Francis Poulenc and Manuel de Falla. Though the 'revival instruments' have now fallen out of favour, concerti continue to be written for harpsichord, though are now more likely to be played on a copy of a historical instrument, perhaps with a small orchestra or some amplification to ensure it can be well heard.

External links

http://piano-concertos.org/ - a list of classical and romantic piano concertos