The Classical Concerto

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The Classical Concerto
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The Classical concerto (c. 17501830)? sinc
e1750 the concerto has found its chief place in
society not in church or at court but in the
concert hall. Some of the excitement it could
arouse in classical musical life is recaptured in
the Mozart family letters. Mozarts introduction
of a new piano concerto (K. 456?) in a Vienna
theatre concert was reported by his father on
February 16, 1785 . . . your brother played a
glorious concerto, . . . I was sitting close .
. . and had the great pleasure of hearing so
clearly all the interplay of the instruments ...
(100 of 14655 words)
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A classical concerto is a three-movement work
for an instrumental soloist and orchestra. It
combines the soloist's virtuosity and
interpretive abilities with the orchestra's wide
range of tone colour and dynamics. Emerging from
this encounter is a contrast of ideas and sound
that is deamatic and satisfying. The classical
love of balance can be seen in the concerto, wher
soloist and orchestra are equally important. Solo
instruments in classical concertos include
violin, cello, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, horn
and piano. Concertos can last anywhere from 20 to
45 minutes, and it has three movements (1)fast,
(2)slow, and (3)fast. A concerto has no minuet or
scherzo. Int the first movement and sometimes in
the last movement, there is a special
unaccompanied showpiece for the soloist, the
cadenza. The soloist will be able to display
virtuosity by playing dazzling scale passages and
broken chords. Themes of the movement are varied
and presentd in new keys. At the end of a
cadenza, the soloist plays a long trill followed
by a chord that meshes with the re-entrance of
the orchestra. Cadenzas are improvised by the
soloist.
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Classical concertos Further information Mozart
Piano Concertos The concertos of Bachs sons are
perhaps the best links between those of the
Baroque period and those of Mozart. C.P.E. Bachs
keyboard concertos contain some brilliant
soloistic writing. Some of them have movements
that run into one another without a break, and
there are frequent cross-movement thematic
references. Mozart, as a boy, made arrangements
for harpsichord and orchestra of three sonata
movements by Johann Christian Bach. By the time
he was twenty, he was able to write concerto
ritornelli that gave the orchestra admirable
opportunity for asserting its character in an
exposition with some five or six sharply
contrasted themes, before the soloist enters to
elaborate on the material. He wrote one concerto
each for flute, oboe (later rearranged for flute
and known as Flute Concerto No. 2), clarinet, and
bassoon, four for horn, a Concerto for Flute,
Harp and Orchestra, and a Sinfonia Concertante
for Violin, Viola and Orchestra. They all exploit
the characteristics of the solo instrument
brilliantly. His five violin concertos, written
in quick succession, show a number of influences,
notably Italian and Austrian. Several passages
have leanings towards folk music, as manifested
in Austrian serenades. However, it was in his
twenty-three original piano concertos that he
excelled himself. It is conventional to state
that the first movements of concertos from the
Classical period onwards follow the structure of
sonata form. Mozart, however, treats sonata form
in his concerto movements with so much freedom
that any broad classification becomes impossible.
For example, some of the themes heard in the
exposition may not be heard again in subsequent
sections. The piano, at its entry, may introduce
entirely new material. There may even be new
material in the so-called recapitulation section,
which in effect becomes a free fantasia. Towards
the end of the first movement, and sometimes in
other movements too, there is a traditional place
for an improvised cadenza. The slow movements may
be based on sonata form or abridged sonata form,
but some of them are romances. The finale is
sometimes a rondo, or even a theme with
variations.
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Aspects of the topic concerto are discussed in
the following places at Britannica. history and
development Baroque and Classical periods (in
Western music The sonata and concerto)
Beethoven (in Ludwig van Beethoven (German
composer) Structural innovations) Brahms (in
Johannes Brahms (German composer) Aims and
achievements) counterpoint (in counterpoint
(music) The Baroque period)
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