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Scan 188
Harvard Dictionary Of Music, 1944
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1CONCERTO
3*rondo form, a form the light character of which lends itself well to the display of brilliance and to the expression of a "happy ending"; (d) a peculiarity of the concerto is the soloist *cadenza which appears regularly in the first movement, near the end of the recapitulation but may occur also, less elaborately, in the other movements. The solo part of a concerto is always written in a highly virtuoso style designed to show the equality, if not superiority, of the single player over the entire orchestra. According to the solo instrument, concertos are classified as piano, violin, cello concertos. Concertos in a free one-movement form are called *concertino or Konzertstück.
5II. The Present Repertory. The present-day repertory of the piano concerto opens with the latest concertos by Mozart, composed between 1785 and 1791 (K.V. 466 in D minor; K.V. 467 in C major; K.V. 482 in E-flat major; K.V. 488 in A major; K.V. 491 in C minor; K.V. 503 in C major; K.V. 537 in D major (Coronation Concerto); K.V. 595 in B-flat major). In these compositions Mozart established the classical form and style of the concerto. Beethoven's five piano concertos, especially the last two, in G major (op. 58, 1805) and in E-flat major (Emperor Concerto, op. 73, 1809), represent the artistic high-point of the entire literature. There followed Weber (op. 11, 1810; op. 32, 1912; Konzertstück op. 79, 1821), Mendelssohn (op. 25, 1831; op. 40, 1837), Chopin (op. 11, op. 21, both c. 1830), and Schumann with his beautiful and effective Concerto in A minor, op. 54 (1841). Chopin's concertos suffer from an inferior treatment of the orchestra and from a lack of musical substance in the solo part. Liszt's two concertos, in E-flat (1849) and A (1849–57), show a tendency towards technical display for its own sake which continues particularly in the concertos of the Russian composers such as Rubinstein (five concertos, notably op. 70, in D minor and op. 94 in E-flat), Tchaikovsky (B-flat minor, op. 23, 1875; G major, op. 44, 1880; E-flat major, op. 75, 1893), Rimsky-Korsakov (1882), and many others. A conspicuous feature of the Russian concertos is the prevalence of octave-playing over the other aspects of piano technique. Grieg contributed an effective and very popular concerto in A minor (1868). A new peak of artistic perfection was reached by Brahms, in his piano concertos in D minor, op. 15 (1854) and B-flat major (1887). There followed concertos by Franck (Variations symphoniques, 1885); MacDowell (D minor, op. 23, 1890); Scriabin (op. 20, 1897); Rachmaninov (op. 1, 1890; op. 18, 1901; op. 30, 1909; op. 40, 1927, revised 1938); Reger (op. 114); Prokofiev (op. 10, 1911; op. 16, 1913; op. 26, 1917; op. 53, for the left hand alone, 1931; op. 55, 1932); Ravel (one for piano, one for the left hand alone, both 1930–31); Stravinsky (for piano and wind instruments, 1924); Hindemith (op. 36, one for piano and twelve solo instruments); Gershwin (1925); Copland (1926); and Vaughan Williams (1933). Some of the more recent works approach the idiom of the Baroque *concerto grosso, in conformity with the general trend towards *neo-classicism [see below, Concerto for orchestra].
7The repertory of the violin concerto is somewhat smaller and, on the whole, less significant. It includes works by Haydn (9), Viotti (29), Mozart (7), Kreutzer (19; 2 for two violins), Beethoven (1), Rode (13), Paganini (2), Spohr (11), Mendelssohn (1), Vieuxtemps (6), Gade (1), Raff (2), Reinecke (1), Goldmark (2), Joachim (2), Bruch (3), Svendsen (1), Lalo (4), Brahms (1), Tchaikovsky (1), Dvořák (1), Saint-Saëns (3), Sinding (2), Elgar (1), R. Strauss (1), Sibelius (1), Schillings (1), Pfitzner (1), Reger (1), Holst (1 for two violins), Scott (1), Casella (1), Krenek (1), Respighi (2), Szymanowski (2), Stravinsky (1), Schönberg (1), Hindemith (1), Piston (1), Bartók (1).
9Several modern composers have written compositions under the seemingly self-contradictory title: Concerto for orchestra, i.e., without a soloist instrument. This trend occurred in connection with the *neo-classical tendencies of the '20's, as a revival of the *concerto grosso of the
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