What's your favourite concerto?

[Barbirollians]

At risk of ire for another trite thread (I think these are just in the tradition of salymap's top ten threads) what is your favourite concerto?

I think concertos are probably my favourite musical form. For me it is always a close run thing between three of the earliest I got to know.

Dvorak Cello Concerto,Mozart K271 and Beethoven Piano Concerto No 5. If I had to only hear one again it would be the Beethoven in the Barenboim/Klemperer recording that has given me joy since I bought it as ASD 2500 when I was 16.

[Joseph K]

Carter's Concerto for Orchestra.

[Alison]

Elgar’s Violin Concerto.

[kea]

Mozart Piano Concerto No.17 in G major, K.453

Honestly unlike in the symphonies thread, it's not even close. K453 will probably top my favourites list for about 50 weeks out of each year. The rest of the time it'd be Mozart's Piano Concerto No.27 in Bb major, K.595

[silvestrione]

There are so many masterpieces amongst the Mozart concertos. Even though I'm a pianist and love so many of the PCs, I think I might go for the Sinfonia Concertante (violin and viola). (The 'Mannheim rocket', the crescendo, gets me every time! Even before a soloist comes in. Then there's the interplay between them...)

[Barbirollians]

There are so many masterpieces amongst the Mozart concertos. Even though I'm a pianist and love so many of the PCs, I think I might go for the Sinfonia Concertante (violin and viola). (The 'Mannheim rocket', the crescendo, gets me every time! Even before a soloist comes in. Then there's the interplay between them...)

I agree but there is a special magic about K271 with the piano opening the concerto.

[Barbirollians]

Elgar’s Violin Concerto.

[Alison]

Elgar’s Violin Concerto.

It still feels like a special occasion when programmed.

Similarly a new release of the work on disc always makes me sit up.

[ahinton]

Carter's Concerto for Orchestra.

Not quite my favourite concerto ( I couldn't possibly have ONE!) but an outstandingly vibrant work with so much packed into its 20 minutes or so; one of its composer's best works, methinks.

That said, I wonder if there ought to be a separate thread for favourite concertos for orchestra? (if we must do this kind of thing). Thee's a fair few from which to choose, perhaps setting a start date of 1925 when Hindemith seems to have inaugurated the genre. There are 8 by Petrassi, 5 by Holloway and quite a few others, notably Bartók, Lutosławski, Gerhard and the one that you mention here. Any takers?

[antongould]

Prokofiev VC 2 .........

[Barbirollians]

Not quite my favourite concerto but an outstandingly vibrant work with so much packed into its 20 minutes or so; one of its composer's best works, methinks.

That said, I wonder if there ought to be a separate thread for favourite concertos for orchestra? (if we must do this kind of thing). Thee's a fair few from which to choose, perhaps setting a start date of 1925 when Hindemith seems to have inaugurated the genre. There are 8 by Petrassi, 5 by Holloway and quite a few others, notably Bartók, Lutosławski, Gerhard and the one that you mention here. Any takers?

Good idea to start a separate thread - one can add Tippett of course to that list.

[ahinton]

Good idea to start a separate thread - one can add Tippett of course to that list.

Indeed so! There's also one by Anthony Payne - quite an early work - but I've never heard it; has anyone here done so?

[LMcD]

K491

[Serial_Apologist]

Has to be the Schoenberg Violin Concerto, which never ceases to yield more of itself, however many times I listen to it.

I would have loved to have mentioned the Cello Concerto, a delightful re-composition by Schoenberg after the mid-18th century Austrian composer G.F. Monn, which always nonplusses guests when I play in as a blindfold and then tell them whose it is!

[Barbirollians]

Has to be the Schoenberg Violin Concerto, which never ceases to yield more of itself, however many times I listen to it.

I would have loved to have mentioned the Cello Concerto, a delightful re-composition by Schoenberg after the mid-18th century Austrian composer G.F. Monn, which always nonplusses guests when I play in as a blindfold and then tell them whose it is!

I know that quite well from the du Pre/Barbirolli account - not a favourite work of mine always think it was an enormous missed opportunity that they did not use the sessions to record the Dvorak.