A piano concerto is a piece where a solo pianist performs with an orchestra. The 19th, 20th and 21st century repertoire make the greatest demands on a piano soloist, both in the difficulty of the piano writing and the large orchestra with which the soloist plays and against which they must be heard. Most concerti take the form of three movements, typically fast-slow-fast. However, some concerti are in one extended movement, or, like Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto, they may even have four movements like a symphony.

The word “concerto,” first used in music in the 1500s, both described working “in concert” with other players as well as setting groups of instrumentalists in the ensemble off against each other. Both meanings describe the process of a concerto, where the orchestra most often introduces musical themes, then the soloist picks up those themes and elaborates them. 

It’s interesting to listen to how a composer shapes the musical material – if the full orchestra presents the opening themes, listen for how the soloist enters. Do they play the same themes or different ones? Is the soloist part of the texture, or are they a dramatic opponent? Or do just some of the orchestral instruments play first, before the soloist enters? Or does the soloist begin the piece? Since the essence of the form is contrast, start by listening for that; or listen for dialogue between the soloist and the orchestra.

Collaboration involves the soloist knowing the full orchestral score, meaning all the other instrumental parts, so as to be able to play the solo part within the whole musical web. It also involves deciding on tempi with the conductor and participating in the give and take of musical phrasing as the conductor leads the orchestra.

My repertoire includes numerous concerti by J.S.Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven; Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor  and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and Richard Strauss’s Burleske;  George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, Leonard Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety, and Joan Tower’s Homage to Beethoven, a work I premiered.