Concerto for Orchestra
Encyclopedia
Although a concerto
is usually a piece of music
for one or more solo instruments
accompanied by a full orchestra
, several composer
s have written works with the apparently contradictory title Concerto for Orchestra. This title is usually chosen to emphasise soloistic and virtuosic treatment of various individual instruments or sections in the orchestra, with emphasis on instruments changing during the piece.
For the distinction between the Concerto for Orchestra and the Sinfonia Concertante genres (or: forms
): see sinfonia concertante
The best known Concerto for Orchestra is the one by Béla Bartók
(1943), although the title had been used several times before.
Goffredo Petrassi
made the concerto for orchestra something of a speciality, writing eight of them since 1933. He finished the last one in 1972.
For string orchestra
For chamber orchestra
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
is usually a piece of music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
for one or more solo instruments
Musical instrument
A musical instrument is a device created or adapted for the purpose of making musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can serve as a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. The history of musical instruments dates back to the...
accompanied by a full orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
, several composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
s have written works with the apparently contradictory title Concerto for Orchestra. This title is usually chosen to emphasise soloistic and virtuosic treatment of various individual instruments or sections in the orchestra, with emphasis on instruments changing during the piece.
For the distinction between the Concerto for Orchestra and the Sinfonia Concertante genres (or: forms
Musical form
The term musical form refers to the overall structure or plan of a piece of music, and it describes the layout of a composition as divided into sections...
): see sinfonia concertante
Sinfonia concertante
Sinfonia concertante is a musical form that emerged during the Classical period of Western music. It is essentially a mixture of the symphony and the concerto genres: a concerto in that one or more soloists are on prominent display, and a symphony in that the soloists are nonetheless discernibly a...
The best known Concerto for Orchestra is the one by Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
(1943), although the title had been used several times before.
Goffredo Petrassi
Goffredo Petrassi
Goffredo Petrassi was an Italian composer of modern classical music, conductor, and teacher. He is considered one of the most influential Italian composers of the twentieth century.-Life:...
made the concerto for orchestra something of a speciality, writing eight of them since 1933. He finished the last one in 1972.
Concertos for Orchestra (in chronological order)
- Concerto for Orchestra, Op. 38 by Paul HindemithPaul HindemithPaul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
(1925) - Concerto for Orchestra, by Tadeusz SzeligowskiTadeusz SzeligowskiTadeusz Szeligowski was a Polish composer, educator, lawyer and music organizer. His works include the operas The Rise of the Scholars, Krakatuk and Theodor Gentlemen, the ballets The Peacock and the Girl and Mazepa ballets, two violin concertos, chamber and choral works.As a music teacher he was...
(1930) - Concerto for Orchestra, by Gian Francesco MalipieroGian Francesco MalipieroGian Francesco Malipiero was an Italian composer, musicologist, music teacher and editor.-Early years:Born in Venice into an aristocratic family, the grandson of the opera composer Francesco Malipiero, Gian Francesco Malipiero was prevented by family troubles from pursuing his musical education in...
(1931) - Philharmonic Concerto, also by Paul Hindemith (1932)
- Concerto per orchestra in Do maggiore by Mario PilatiMario PilatiMario Pilati was an Italian composer.Pilati was born in Naples, and his natural musical talent showed itself when he was very young. He entered the Conservatoiro di Musica San Pietro a Majella at the age of fifteen, studying under Antonio Savasta...
(1933) - Concerto for Orchestra by Walter PistonWalter PistonWalter Hamor Piston Jr., , was an American composer of classical music, music theorist and professor of music at Harvard University whose students included Leroy Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, and Elliott Carter....
(1933), which is based in part on Hindemith's work - Concerto for Orchestra by Zoltán KodályZoltán KodályZoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....
(1939) - Concerto for OrchestraConcerto for Orchestra (Bartók)Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116, BB 123, is a five-movement musical work for orchestra composed by Béla Bartók in 1943. It is one of his best-known, most popular and most accessible works. The score is inscribed "15 August – 8 October 1943", and it premiered on December 1, 1944 in Boston Symphony...
by Béla BartókBéla BartókBéla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
(1943) - Concerto for String Orchestra by Grażyna BacewiczGrazyna BacewiczGrażyna Bacewicz was a Polish composer and violinist. She is only the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition, the first being Maria Szymanowska in the early 19th century.- Life :Bacewicz was born in Łódź...
(1948) - Concerto for String Orchestra by Alan RawsthorneAlan RawsthorneAlan Rawsthorne was a British composer. He was born in Haslingden, Lancashire, and is buried in Thaxted churchyard in Essex.-Career:...
(1949) - Concerto No.1 for Orchestra 'Arevakal, Op. 88 by Alan HovhanessAlan HovhanessAlan Hovhaness was an Armenian-American composer.His music is accessible to the lay listener and often evokes a mood of mystery or contemplation...
(1951) - Concerto No.7 for Orchestra, Op. 116 by Alan HovhanessAlan HovhanessAlan Hovhaness was an Armenian-American composer.His music is accessible to the lay listener and often evokes a mood of mystery or contemplation...
(1953) - Concerto for Orchestra by Witold Lutosławski (1950–54, which won him the UNESCO 1st prize in 1963.
- Concerto No.8 for Orchestra, Op. 117 by Alan HovhanessAlan HovhanessAlan Hovhaness was an Armenian-American composer.His music is accessible to the lay listener and often evokes a mood of mystery or contemplation...
(1957) - Concerto for Orchestra by Giya KancheliGiya KancheliGiya Kancheli , born 10 August 1935, in Tbilisi, is a Georgian composer resident in Belgium.Since 1991, Kancheli has lived in Western Europe: first in Berlin, and since 1995 in Antwerp, where he is composer-in-residence for the Royal Flemish Philharmonic....
(1961) - Concerto for Orchestra by Grażyna BacewiczGrazyna BacewiczGrażyna Bacewicz was a Polish composer and violinist. She is only the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition, the first being Maria Szymanowska in the early 19th century.- Life :Bacewicz was born in Łódź...
(1962) - Concerto for Orchestra by Michael TippettMichael TippettSir Michael Kemp Tippett OM CH CBE was an English composer.In his long career he produced a large body of work, including five operas, three large-scale choral works, four symphonies, five string quartets, four piano sonatas, concertos and concertante works, song cycles and incidental music...
(1962–63) - Concerto for Orchestra No. 1 by Rodion ShchedrinRodion ShchedrinRodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin is a Russian composer. He was one оf the leading Soviet composers, and was the chairman of the Union of Russian Composers from 1973 until 1990.-Life and Works:...
(1963), subtitled "Naughty Limericks" - Concerto for Orchestra by Havergal BrianHavergal BrianHavergal Brian , was a British classical composer.Brian acquired a legendary status at the time of his rediscovery in the 1950s and 1960s for the many symphonies he had managed to write. By the end of his life he had completed 32, an unusually large number for any composer since Haydn or Mozart...
(1964) - Concerto for Orchestra by Roberto Gerhard (1965)
- Concerto for Orchestra, Op. 8 by Robin HollowayRobin HollowayRobin Greville Holloway is an English composer.-Early life:From 1952 to 1957, he was a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral...
(1967) - Concerto for Orchestra by Thea MusgraveThea MusgraveThea Musgrave CBE is a Scottish composer of opera and classical music.-Biography:Born in Barnton, Edinburgh, Thea Musgrave studied at the University of Edinburgh and in Paris as a pupil of Nadia Boulanger...
(1967) - Concerto for Orchestra by Elliott CarterElliott CarterElliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
(1969) - Concerto for orchestra by Anthony PayneAnthony PayneAnthony Payne is an English composer, most famous for the work published as Edward Elgar: The Sketches for Symphony No. 3 Elaborated by Anthony Payne...
(1974) - Second Concerto for Orchestra, Op. 40 by Robin HollowayRobin HollowayRobin Greville Holloway is an English composer.-Early life:From 1952 to 1957, he was a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral...
(1978) - Concerto for Orchestra by Roger SessionsRoger SessionsRoger Huntington Sessions was an American composer, critic, and teacher of music.-Life:Sessions was born in Brooklyn, New York, to a family that could trace its roots back to the American revolution. His mother, Ruth Huntington Sessions, was a direct descendent of Samuel Huntington, a signer of...
(1979–81), which won him the Pulitzer Prize for MusicPulitzer Prize for MusicThe Pulitzer Prize for Music was first awarded in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer did not call for such a prize in his will, but had arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year...
in 1982 - Concerto for Orchestra by John McCabeJohn McCabeJohn McCabe may refer to:*John McCabe , British composer and classical pianist*John McCabe , Shakespearean scholar and biographer*John McCabe , author and geneticist...
(1982) - Concerto for Orchestra by Edward GregsonEdward GregsonEdward Gregson is an English composer of international standing, whose music has been performed, broadcast, and recorded worldwide. He was born in Sunderland, England, in 1945. He studied composition and piano at the Royal Academy of Music from 1963-7, winning five prizes for composition...
(1983) (revised versions 1989 and 2001) - Concerto for Orchestra by Robert SaxtonRobert Saxton-Biography:After early advice and encouragement from Benjamin Britten, Robert Saxton took private composition lessons with Elisabeth Lutyens. He went on to study with Robin Holloway at Cambridge University, with Robert Sherlaw Johnson as a post-graduate at Oxford University, and later with Berio....
(1984) - Concerto for Orchestra by Karel HusaKarel HusaKarel Husa is a Czech-born classical composer and conductor, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize and 1993 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition...
(1986) - 1st Concerto for Orchestra by Steven StuckySteven StuckySteven Stucky is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he studied music in the public schools and, privately, viola with Herbert Preston, conducting with Leo Scheer, and...
(1986–87) - Concerto for Orchestra by Leonard BernsteinLeonard BernsteinLeonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
(1986–89), which is also known as "Jubilee Games" for orchestra and baritone - Concerto for Orchestra (Variations without a theme) by Denys BoulianeDenys BoulianeDenys Bouliane is a Canadian composer and conductor.-Biography:He is a graduate of Laval University . He studied music composition in the Neue Musik Theater class of Mauricio Kagel in Cologne followed by studies with György Ligeti until 1985...
(1985–95) - Concerto for Orchestra by Joan TowerJoan TowerJoan Tower is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by the New Yorker as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time", her bold and energetic compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world...
(1991) - Third Concerto for Orchestra, Op. 80 by Robin HollowayRobin HollowayRobin Greville Holloway is an English composer.-Early life:From 1952 to 1957, he was a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral...
(1981–94) - Concerto for Orchestra (Zoroastrian Riddles) by Richard DanielpourRichard DanielpourRichard Danielpour is an American composer.-Biography:Danielpour is born of Persian/Jewish descent. He studied at Oberlin College and the New England Conservatory of Music, and later at the Juilliard School of Music, where he received a DMA in composition in 1986...
(1996) - Strathclyde Concerto No. 10: Concerto for OrchestraStrathclyde ConcertosThe Strathclyde Concertos are a series of ten orchestral works by the English composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.Commissioned by Strathclyde Regional Council, each work features an instrumental soloist and small orchestra. The first concerto, for oboe and orchestra, appeared in 1986, with the tenth...
by Peter Maxwell DaviesPeter Maxwell DaviesSir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.-Biography:...
(1996), actually a series of ten concertos for soloists from the orchestra - Concerto for Orchestra (reseated) by Augusta Read ThomasAugusta Read ThomasAugusta Read Thomas is an American composer.Augusta Read Thomas was born in Glen Cove, New York. She attended The Green Vale School and later moved on to St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and then studied composition with Jacob Druckman at Yale University and at the Royal Academy of...
(1998) - Concerto for Orchestra by Stanisław Skrowaczewski (1999)
- Concerto for Orchestra by Menachem Zur (2001-2002) (revised version 2010)
- Boston Concerto by Elliott CarterElliott CarterElliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
(2002) - Concerto for Orchestra by Jennifer HigdonJennifer HigdonJennifer Higdon is an American composer of classical music. Higdon has received many awards, including the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music for her Violin Concerto and the 2010 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition for her Percussion Concerto.-Biography:Higdon was born in Brooklyn,...
(2002) - Yi°: Concerto for Orchestra by Tan DunTan DunTan Dun is a Chinese contemporary classical composer, most widely known for his scores for the movies Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Hero.-Early life in China:...
(2002) - Concerto for Orchestra, Op. 81 by Lowell LiebermannLowell LiebermannLowell Liebermann is an American composer, pianist and conductor.At the age of sixteen, Liebermann performed at Carnegie Hall, playing his Piano Sonata, op. 1...
(2002) - Concerto for Orchestra by Magnus LindbergMagnus LindbergMagnus Lindberg is a Finnish composer and pianist. He is currently the composer-in-residence at the New York Philharmonic.-Education:...
(2003) - 2nd Concerto for Orchestra by Steven Stucky (2003, which won him the Pulitzer Prize for MusicPulitzer Prize for MusicThe Pulitzer Prize for Music was first awarded in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer did not call for such a prize in his will, but had arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year...
in 2005 - Concerto for Orchestra by David HorneDavid Horne (composer)David Horne is a Scottish composer, pianist, and teacher.A resident composer with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic for four years, he has been awarded several commissions...
(2003–04) - Concerti for Orchestra by Milton BabbittMilton BabbittMilton Byron Babbitt was an American composer, music theorist, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his serial and electronic music.-Biography:...
(2004) - Concierto para orquestra by Agustí Charles (2004)
- Concerto for Orchestra by Alejandro Arguello (2004–05)
- Fourth Concerto for Orchestra, Op. 101 by Robin HollowayRobin HollowayRobin Greville Holloway is an English composer.-Early life:From 1952 to 1957, he was a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral...
(2004–06) - Concerto for Orchestra by Christopher Rouse (2007–2008)
- Concerto for Orchestra by Rolf MartinssonRolf MartinssonRolf Martinsson is a Swedish composer.Martinsson studied composition at Malmö Academy of Music, Lund University 1981-85 for Brian Ferneyhough, Sven-David Sandström, Hans Eklund, Sven-Eric Johanson, Jan W. Morthenson and Sven-Erik Bäck...
(2008) - Symphony No. 5 (Concerto for Orchestra) by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich (2008)
- Fifth Concerto for Orchestra, Op. 107 by Robin HollowayRobin HollowayRobin Greville Holloway is an English composer.-Early life:From 1952 to 1957, he was a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral...
(2009–10)
For string orchestra
- Concerto in DConcerto in D (Stravinsky)Igor Stravinsky's Concerto in D for string orchestra was composed in Hollywood between the beginning of 1946 and 8 August of the same year in response to a 1946 commission from Paul Sacher to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Basel Chamber Orchestra , and for this reason is sometimes...
by Igor StravinskyIgor StravinskyIgor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
(1946)
For chamber orchestra
- Concerto for Chamber Orchestra by George AntheilGeorge AntheilGeorge Antheil was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author and inventor. A self-described "Bad Boy of Music", his modernist compositions amazed and appalled listeners in Europe and the US during the 1920s with their cacophonous celebration of mechanical devices.Returning permanently to...
(1932) - Chamber Concerto by György LigetiGyörgy LigetiGyörgy Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...
(1969-70) - Concerto for Orchestra by John WoolrichJohn WoolrichJohn Woolrich is a British composer. He was BBC Radio 3 'Composer of the Week' in March 2008, involving the broadcast of over 4 hours of his music in one week.-External links:**...
(1999)