Favorite Concertos?

[goalevan]

Mine are

Rach 3
Grieg Piano Concerto in A Minor
Chopin Concerto 1
Chopin Concerto 2
Beethoven Concerto 4
Mozart Concerto 21
Rach 2

[liszmaninopin]

I will second all of those, and add the Prok 2 and 3, and the Brahms Second to the list.

[liszmaninopin]

Also, Ravel's concerto for the left hand.

[zhiliang]

Almost every concertos have something beautiful to it... if you were to listen to it a few more times plus with a open heart, every concerto can be your favourite....

i will add to that the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2 and Liszt Piano Concerto No. 2. They may be different another time...

Zhiliang

[amanfang]

I like the Ravel concerto in G and Brahms second.

[benji]

Tchaikovsky's First and Chopin's Second are my faves.

[donjuan]

Liszt- Totentanz Concerto (the solo transcription is also pretty good)
Liszt- Piano Concerto No.1
I cant remember,--there was this Bach concerto I liked--umm, Glenn Gould plays it in the "Great Pianists of the Twentieth Century" video.  Does anyone know the name?  It might have been in D minor..

[Dave_2004_G]

Yep it's in d minor - wonderful piece

Dave

[Logar]

No one mentioned Tchaikovskys nr. 1 yet
Though overplayed and heard, it is one of the greates piano concerts. I also think Saint-Saens second aswell as Griegs first are awesome.

[Alp635]

I just played Ravel left hand and it is the BEST thing ever.  

Liszt Totentanz must be my least favorite piece written in the entire piano literature...what a wasted effort.  Loud banging and pure cheese with nothing more than that tired old dies irae theme.  I admit the little "fugue" section is a bit cool but other than that...?

Sorry to be like this, I had to get it out.

My favorite concerti...I love them all except totentanz,
When I'm in the mood to feel melnacholic: Chopin eminor or Rach 2

When I'm in the mood to feel inspired: Beethoven 4 or Brahms 1 or 2

When I'm feeling like being amazed by loudness and sheer virtuosity: Bartok 2nd piano concerto, Prokofiev 2

SOmething light and fun: Rach pag, prokofiev 3 or mozart c major!

[EthanT]

My first post =p...

I love-

Liszt 1 and 2.... Rach 3 is great too but, rach doesn't even play it that well on his recording... The piano is so wimpy, could be the bad reception.

[donjuan]

I just played Ravel left hand and it is the BEST thing ever.  

Liszt Totentanz must be my least favorite piece written in the entire piano literature...what a wasted effort.  Loud banging and pure cheese with nothing more than that tired old dies irae theme.  I admit the little "fugue" section is a bit cool but other than that...?

Sorry to be like this, I had to get it out.

My favorite concerti...I love them all except totentanz,

How can you not like Totentanz?  It is one of the most powerful works ever made.  What recording have you heard?  I never percieved it as "Loud Banging".  At times, the music is LARGE, but never Banging.  Everything makes sense, the phrases are all well developed and would not be effective any other way.
Liszt would roll over in his grave if he read what you said.  "Pure cheese" my ass!!  Liszt was an old man at the time of composing this piece and knew what he needed- his style was well matured and there is absolutely no hint of virtuosity for the sake of Virtuosity, (Which, I admit, mars the earlier works)
donjuan  

[Alp635]

Perhaps I have heard too many students playing Totentanz and perhaps they do not do it justice.  However, I learned  the orchestra part to accompany someone else and in my reading through, I find none of it inspiring.  Powerful?  What constitutes powerful?  THe dies irae?  GIve me a break.  A heavy metal band could play the dies irae and probably it would sound as "powerful" as Liszt... I have heard some good recordings and seen it live performed and there has never been a time when I enjoyed it.  
First: thematic material is JUST the dies irae over and over and over again in more and more virtuosic manipulations with octaves, repeated notes, lot's of flashy glissandos, more octaves, more loud chords in the opening statement diminished chords...
There is one beautiful part immediately after the opening when it becomes lyrical and more beautiful, but that quickly ends when Liszt begings to show off his virtuosity.  TOtentanz was not meant to be anything other than a show of technical might and power.  It is at best an etude on a theme of dies irae.  If youtake out all the octaves and glissandi and fast passagework...what do you have?  THe dies irae over and over and over again.  Actually I enjoy listnening to it sometimes because I laugh everytime.  It sounds almost like a caricature of something dramatic and sinister and then suddenly...heroic when the brass comes in playing the fifths like some sort of majesic triumph...I don't know about this piece at all....
It is quite comical and definitely melodramtic.  In the pagannini variations, Rachmaninoff uses the dies irae to good effect.  He juxtaposes it with the paganini theme to transform it into something else, a sinister undertone to a famous tune.  Rachmaninoff also knew that using the dies irae over and over again would become tiring and definitely detract from the power of the quotation.  So he does other things and every now and then brings it back in.  Liszt takes a musical quotation "dies irae" and turns it into a set of variations without creating anything very original.  The dies irae is a hackneyed overused theme that was beat to death by Liszt.  Perhaps it is because I am not impressed by that kind of music, and I am being overly opinionated for  no other reason than I'm bored so don't take this as a personal criticism at all.  It is just my own taste.  It is a piece played by many people and who am I to judge it really...

-A

[Tash]

oooh i love the chopin concertos! oh and all three of bartok's piano concertos they are seriously good i want to play them. i generally like everything

[ahmedito]

I agree, Totentanz is CRAP.... but its really impressive when played right.

Someone add Shostakovich 1 to the list.... my favorite of all time is the Mozart 9th in Eb major

[Motrax]

Simply due to the fact that they haven't been mentioned, I'll have to add Rachmaninoff's first and fourth concertos (Revised first concerto, I've never heard the original). The fourth concerto is simply stunning, but I believe it requires quite a few listens before you begin to understand a lot of the convoluted melodies and complex themes which are woven into the piece.

I don't particlarly like the Grieg concerto, though everyone else in the world seems to believe it's quite an incredible work.

[donjuan]

I agree, Totentanz is CRAP.... but its really impressive when played right.

Someone add Shostakovich 1 to the list.... my favorite of all time is the Mozart 9th in Eb major

oh well, to each his own, right?  
donjuan

but, I still love the Totentanz..

[faulty_damper]

Although not technically a 'concerto' Alkan's Opus 39 Concerto is great!  I like it a lot.  What makes it even better is that it sounds complete as is, without orchestral accompanyment.  Not to mention the first movement is 30 minutes long but it isn't boring at all the way it was organized.  The way he uses the piano to texture the entire piece is genius!

[sharon_f]

Mozart:  D minor & B-Flat K. 595
Beethoven: Fourth & Fifth
Schumann
Prokofiev: Third

And one of my personal favories, the Franck Symphonic Variations. It is hardly ever played any more and no one seems to ever mention it in this forum.

[JK]

I don't know why noone has mentioned the Saint-seans concertos! His second concerto is simply stunning. The first movement starts like Bach, the second is a bouncy scherzando movement with a wonderful salonesque tune and the last movement is absolutely wild!

My personal favourite concerto to play is Rach2, and my personal favourite to listen to is.........probably Rach2 again ! I also love Schumann, Grieg, Rachs1,3,4, Beethoven4,5, Mozart23 and Alkan cconcerto da camera no.2 in C#minor!

[f0bul0us]

No one mentioned Tchaikovskys nr. 1 yet
Though overplayed and heard, it is one of the greates piano concerts. I also think Saint-Saens second aswell as Griegs first are awesome.

You are a great man.

[Nita]

I would say mine are Prok 2 and 3 as well as Rach 2and 4...plus  Bartok Concertos. I would advise to listen to Prokofiev Concertos by Alexander Toradze...Amazing!!!

[Regulus Medtner]

Medtner's 3 concertos.

[EthanT]

Greigs A minor is so overrated... anyone can play that one, it's not that hard  . Sound good though lol.

Liszt concerto 2 is my favorite concerto of all time! I would be happy to play it, if it wasnt for that #*@# run at the beginning! gRAAAAAaa

[JK]

Grieg may not be as hard as someone like say Rachmaninov but that doesn't make it any less of a concerto! And it is very hard to play the Grieg convincingly, people often dash off the notes at a rate of knotes without actually thinking about what they're doing. (I do have a soft spot for Grieg cos it was my first concerto!)  

[pseudopianist]

Chopins Piano Concerto No2 in F minor and Bachs double concerto for harpsichord in C major (don't remeber the BWV tho)

[f0bul0us]

I just finished Rach 2 about a week ago and picked up Rach 3 today. It doesn't look as difficult as it's made out to be, infact the first movement looks even easier than that of Rach 2. (I.M.O)