Concertos

This music sings and soars; it has anguish, beauty, romance, tranquility and agitation.
Sir Antonio Pappano, on Elgar’s Violin Concerto

The main idea behind a concerto is contrast. (The name comes from Latin and Italian verbs meaning ‘to dispute/debate’ and ‘to get together’.) Initially, before the Classical period (beginning around 1750), a small handful of instruments playing together contrasted against a larger body of instruments.

By the late 18th and early 19th centuries, as concert-giving moved away from court and aristocratic circles, the focus was more on a single instrument pitted against the orchestra. This solo concerto was the form in which Mozart and Beethoven established their reputations in the musical centre of Vienna, and it fuelled the rise of the combined composer/performer.

As the concept of public concert-giving led to larger audiences, the fashion grew for technical display (basically, showing off!) and musical personality. Franz Liszt (1811–86) became the first touring performer and the inventor of the solo instrumental recital; polite ladies would swoon at his performances. And Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840) had such a superhuman command of his violin that he was reputed to have sold his soul to the devil in exchange for it. The concerto not only satisfied the demand for showmanship but also introduced a dramatic component: the struggle of one against the many. Composers and players (the two roles by later mostly separated) pushed the limits of what was achievable on the instruments. The favoured instruments are the violin, piano and cello but concertos have been written for every major orchestral instrument – including tuba, harp and percussion. More recently, novel additions to the list have included the ondes Martenot (the eerily swooping electronic instrument beloved of 1950s B-movie composers), sitar and turntables.

As with the symphony, the concerto adopts a broad underlying structure. Typically formed of three movements (fast–slow–fast), the first movement might contain a ‘cadenza’ (an unaccompanied passage designed to showcase the soloist’s abilities); the middle movement will concentrate on melodic lyricism or reflection; and the final movement especially allows for showy display. As the symphony overtook the concerto as the dominant musical form, some composers, including Schumann and Brahms, sought to knit the solo instrument closer into the orchestral fabric and into a more integrated ‘symphonic’ argument. But we all like a bit of musical bling, and the concerto – more than the symphony – has continued to appeal to recent and living composers.

By Edward Bhesania