Sunday, July 13, 2008

10 Best Piano Concerts

We are starting with a difficult category since from memory I can certainly think off more than 10 piano concerts that you just cannot avoid. As such for a start I will list a few more and put them all to your consideration and voting. In a couple of months we will perhaps be able to narrow this list to just 10, or not ... We will see ... So the big list of concertos is as such (by order of composition date):
  1. Concerto nº9 K. 271 in E-flat by Mozart (1777) named Jeunehomme* video sample here, full description here.
  2. Concerto nº21 K. 467 in C by Mozart (1785) sample here
  3. Concerto nº24 K. 491 in C minor by Mozart (1786) sample here
  4. Concerto nº26 K. 537 in D by Mozart (1788) named "the Coronation" sample here.
  5. Concerto nº4 op. 58 in G by Beethoven (1805-1806)
  6. Concerto nº5 op. 73 in E-flat by Beethoven (1809) named "the Emperor"**, video sample here, full description here.
  7. Concerto nº2 op. 21 in F minor by Chopin (1829-1830) video sample here.
  8. Concerto nº1 op. 11 in E minor by Chopin (1830) video sample here.
  9. Concerto nº1 op. 25 in G minor by Mendelssohn (1831) video sample here
  10. Concerto nº1 in E-flat by Lizst (1835) video sample here
  11. Concerto nº2 op. 40 in D minor by Mendelssohn (1837) video sample here.
  12. Concerto nº2 in A by Lizst (1839)
  13. Concerto nº1 op. 15 in D minor by Brahms (1859) video sample here.
  14. Concerto nº2 op. 22 in G minor by Camille Saint-Saëns (1868) video sample here.
  15. Concerto op. 16 in A minor by Grieg (1868) video sample here.
  16. Concerto nº1 op. 23 in B-flat minor by Tchaikovsky (1874-1875) video sample here.
  17. Concerto nº5 op. 103 in F by Camille Saint-Saëns (1895) named "the Egyptian" video sample here.
  18. Concerto nº2 op. 18 in C minor by Rachmaninoff (1901) video sample here.
  19. Concerto nº3 op. 30 in D minor by Rachmaninoff (1909) video sample here.
  20. Concerto nº1 op. 10 in D-flat by Prokofiev (1912) sample here.
  21. Concerto nº3 Op. 26 in C by Prokofiev (1917-21) sample here.
  22. Concerto in F by Gershwin (1925) video sample here.
  23. Concerto nº4 op. 40 in G minor by Rachmaninoff (1926) video sample here.
  24. Concerto in G by Ravel (1931) video sample here.
  25. Concerto nº1 op. 35 in C minor by Shostakovich (1933) video sample here.
  26. Concerto nº3 Sz. 119 in E by Belá Bartok (1945) video sample here.
So what will happen now is that I will take each one of this concerts and try to explain to you why I love them so much when needed with a bit of history or theory behind the scene but always trying to keep it simple. In the mean time you can of course help me out by commenting, voting and making new suggestions.

*This seems to be a bogus nickname as we will find out shortly in the detailed presentation of this concert.
** Another "bogus" nickname or at least one that does not reflect the opinion of the composer.

8 comments:

NB said...

Numa passagem rápida: e o 3º de Beethoven?

Moura Aveirense said...

Hummmmm, new blog? ;)

Fernando Vasconcelos said...

NB. I will add the 3rd by Beethoven
Moura: Yeap . New blog . Just starting. A different concept. The other will continue normally.

Anonymous said...

E o de Schumman?

Unknown said...

Uma excelente lista, à qual apenas acrescentaria um dos meus preferidos: o nº22 de Mozart.

Gostaria de felicitá-lo pelo excelente trabalho que tem feito, neste e no seu outro blog.
Descobri nesta lista alguns concertos que ainda não conheço, falha que tratarei de suprimir brevemente.

Felicidades e votos de continuação do bom trabalho.

Philipp said...

As any such list, some may be out depending on personal styles.

For the Liszt Concert No. 2, here it is a extremely good link at youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbP3CU37VTs

Liszt Piano Concert No. 2 by Bronfman and Gergiev = Speechless

Philipp said...

Oh, I forgot, I personally missed in this list the Mozart No 20 and Schumann; nevertheless, a great overall list.

fierydog said...

What a cliche list. Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Rachmaninoff. Of course. What about Hiller, Thalberg, Balakirev, Prokofiev, Pierne, Rubenstein, Khatchaturian, and all the others? Mozart wrote 27 piano concertos, and they all sound nearly the same, why list more than one of his works when you can introduce a totally new composer who most likely composed a concerto just as good if not better. Its all subjective and no list is really good or bad, I just wish you had more variety.