Top 20 Favorite 20th-c. Concerti

[madaboutmahler]

I would imagine that mine would go something like this, in no particular order:

Elgar Cello Concerto
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto no.3
Rachmaninov Piano Concerto no.4
Ravel Piano Concerto in G Major
Ravel Concerto for Piano Left Hand
Debussy Rapsodie pour saxophone et orchestre
Shostakovich Piano Concerto no.2
Shostakovich Violin Concerto no.1
Shostakovich Cello Concerto no.1
Prokofiev Violin Concerto no.1
Prokofiev Piano Concerto no.1
Korngold Violin Concerto
Skold Violin Concerto
Strauss Oboe Concerto
Britten Violin Concerto
Delius Violin Concerto
MacMillan Veni Veni Emmanuel
Lutoslawski Concerto for Orchestra
Tippett Concerto for Double String Orchestra
Takemitsu From Me Flows What You Call Time
Bartok Concerto for Orchestra
Bartok Piano Concerto no.1

(roughly 20!)

[DieNacht]

May I ask - which recording of the Takemitsu "From Me Flows ..." do you have ? I have the BBC & I like it, but I wonder if there is another which makes the work even easier to comprehend ...

[madaboutmahler]

May I ask - which recording of the Takemitsu "From Me Flows ..." do you have ? I have the BBC & I like it, but I wonder if there is another which makes the work even easier to comprehend ...

Of course you may! I don't actually own either of the 2 recordings I can find available. I should certainly try and get hold of them at some point. However, I listen to the work through the Berliner Philharmoniker's Digital Concert Hall. They performed the work in the last season, with the BPO percussionists and Yutaka Sado conducting. The whole concerto can be found on the Digital Concert Hall website, it's a very beautiful performance. Also, actually seeing the treatment of the percussion instruments is absolutely beautiful. The tubular bells hanging from the ceiling etc. You have to see it to believe it! Absolutely wonderful, a great performance!

[DieNacht]

Yes, the mysteriously meditative music combined with those percussion solos is indeed one of the fascinating features of that work ...

[DaveF]

This is difficult - to think of 20 x 20 concerti that I know and like, especially as I've set myself the extra constraint of only 1 per composer.  But, for what it's worth, and moving from the obvious to the perhaps more obscure:

Nielsen clarinet
Berg violin
Bartók 1st piano
Shostakovich 1st violin
Prokofiev 4th piano
Ravel left hand
Poulenc organ
Elgar violin
Rodrigo de Aranjuez
Sibelius violin
Walton viola
Britten cello symphony (or does that belong in the "Favourite Symphonies" thread? - violin concerto if so)
Strauss 2nd horn
Rachmaninov 3rd piano
Stravinsky movements
Schnittke piano & strings
Davies trumpet
Tippett for orchestra
Valen violin
Brian for orchestra


DF

[not edward]

An offhand list (keeping to one per composer to make compilation easier):

Bartok piano concerto #2
Berg violin concerto
Britten violin concerto
Carter piano concerto
Dutilleux L'arbre des songes for violin and orchestra
Elgar cello concerto
Gerhard violin concerto
Gubaidulina Offertorium for violin and orchestra
Hartmann Concerto funebre
Kurtag double concerto for piano, cello and two chamber ensembles
Lachenmann Tanzsuite mit Deutschlandlied for string quartet and orchestra
Ligeti violin concerto
Lutoslawski cello concerto
Martinu concerto for violin, piano and orchestra
Nielsen clarinet concerto
Rachmaninov piano concerto #3
Schnittke concerto for piano and strings
Schoenberg piano concerto
Shostakovich cello concerto #2
Webern concerto for 9 instruments

[and Tippett, Rihm, Prokofiev, Martin and others find themselves going missing in this list for no good reason...]