"Perfect Pianists at the BBC" - Friday 4 March 20:00, BBC Four

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I just have one query. I thought square pianos were really domestic instruments, yet DON said early concertos were played on them with a small number of string-players. I always assumed, though stand to be corrected, that the fortepiano (i.e. still a harpsichord sort of shape) was the first to be invented and presumably the first to be used for early piano concertos.

You're right - some of these Concerto performances were chamber arrangements for domestic use; with (solo) violin, 'cello & flute, for example. Others were chamber concertos - an earlier use of the word, just meaning for players "in concert" with each other (rather than "in a Concert").