Piano Concerto

Piano against orchestra, with the cadenza left to the soloist.

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A piano concerto sets a piano against an orchestra and lets each complete the other. The piano must display technique and also find its place inside the orchestral texture; that tension is the heart of the genre.

Origins and dates

In the mid-eighteenth century the piano replaced the harpsichord, and J.C. Bach and Mozart wrote the first important examples. Mozart's twenty-seven turn the dialogue into something like opera. Beethoven's Fifth sets soloist and orchestra in open conflict. In the nineteenth century Liszt, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff pushed virtuosity to its height.

Listening features

The first movement often has two expositions, the orchestra finishing before the piano enters. Follow the exchanges with woodwind and the way themes pass between solo and tutti. The cadenza leaves the piano alone, and the orchestra returns at its end. The second movement sings, and the finale often uses rondo or dance rhythm.

Composers and works

Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Ravel and Bartók.

Lineage

It grows from the Baroque and harpsichord concerto and leads to the sinfonia concertante and modern works for piano and orchestra. Its double exposition also shapes the violin concerto.

Misconceptions

Cadenzas are not always improvised; many are written out. A piano concerto need not have three movements, and it is more than a display of speed.

Sources

• The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed., entry "Concerto" — definitions and dating checked, not quoted
• Charles Rosen, The Classical Style — context checked, not quoted

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.