Comprehensive, Stand-alone Concerto Movements?

[gapoc459]

Often times for competitions we are only allowed to play one movement of a concerto. There are many concertos that I find too fragmented without the whole piece; I don't think I would want to play just the first movement of the Brahms no. 2 (for example)!!!

Try to consider both the experience for the pianist, but especially the experience for the audience. Which single concerto movement can stand alone and provide an intensely moving experience by itself? This also means that there might be concertos that are not very popular or highly valued because the piece as a whole can be very weak; but if just one movement is golden, it can be worth a try!

The two concertos I've been thinking about for my next competition are Beethoven 4 and Chopin 1 (I just did Beethoven 3 a few months ago and adored it), but I'm not yet sure about how I feel about playing just the first movement of these (especially the G major...).

[j_menz]

Shostakovich 2, second movement comes to mind. Melodic and tonal and probably not often heard by people put of by the more typically DSCHish outer movements.

Being a slow movement, it's competition credentials may be suspect, but that says more about competitions than anything else.

[thorn]

What about Balakirev's arrangement of the slow movement from Chopin 1?

Or does it have to be a first movement?

[visitor]

Robert Fuchs piano concerto the first movement is epic, dark and foreboding.

Charles D'Albert piano concerto, only a single movement long, so he whole thing is compact and is pretty outstanding

Bowen rhapsody, again single mvmnt work, outstanding

Litolff, the scherzo from concerto symphonique no 3

[perprocrastinate]

Brahms 1, first movement
Ravel (G major), second movement

Or another thought; instead of a single concerto movement, how about a single movement concerto?

Ravel left hand
Prokofiev 1
Liszt 1, Liszt 2

and if you consider these to be concerti,

Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Liszt Totentanz

[pianist1976]

How about the (I guess) little known Alkan-Klindworth concerto?

It's an authorized orchestration made by Klindworth of the Concerto Sans Orchestre by Alkan from Op 39. Klindworth only orchestred the first movement but it has, in my humble opinion, enough entity to be a full one movement concerto.

[gapoc459]

Funny you should mention that; I was listening to a recording online, and I was thinking that this music has such great potential, but I didn't like either the orchestration or the playing as they were.

[pianoman1349]

In my experience, the following concerto movements work really well as stand-alone repertoire choices in concerto competitions.

Rachmaninov: Piano concerto no 2 -- mvt 3 (works well in a 2 piano performance and with orchestra)

Prokofiev: Piano concerto no 3 -- mvt 1 or mvt 3 (this is a very popular choice in Canada -- almost every single concerto competition will inevitably feature at least one performance of either of these movements by themselves)

Grieg: Mvt 1 or 3

Schumann mvt 1 (originally intended as a stand-alone fantasie)

[thalbergmad]

Schumann mvt 1 (originally intended as a stand-alone fantasie)

Yeh, what a belter.

Thal