Where do people find solo piano parts for piano concertos?

[thegrand88]

I have searched for some time for just the piano part for piano concertos. Every time I search this in Google, however I word it, I end up with either a solo piano arrangement of a concerto (Not the part to the actual concerto) or a lead score for the conductor (Something that will be either hard to read because the piano part is too small, or be something crazy like a 100 pages.) Imslp does not have the piano parts to any concertos that I could find. It somehow includes every other part, like the flute parts, violin parts, etc. but fails to include the piano part. Is there like some unwritten rule for concert pianists that they must use the conductors part, or is there some place where you can find just the piano part? Now I understand that as a concert pianist you would need to have a good understanding of the conductor's score, as you would have to know the other parts, just to know when to come in, how your music fits with the clarinet's part, etc. But if you are trying to learn a piano concerto part, then that would be a lot of page turns with out the right part. Any help?

[ranjit]

Idk if this is helpful, but if you can find the score of the piano concerto on the Musescore website, as a musescore file (.mcsz I think), you can then manually delete the remaining parts, or copy-paste the piano parts onto another file.

[brogers70]

I have searched for some time for just the piano part for piano concertos. Every time I search this in Google, however I word it, I end up with either a solo piano arrangement of a concerto (Not the part to the actual concerto) or a lead score for the conductor (Something that will be either hard to read because the piano part is too small, or be something crazy like a 100 pages.) Imslp does not have the piano parts to any concertos that I could find. It somehow includes every other part, like the flute parts, violin parts, etc. but fails to include the piano part. Is there like some unwritten rule for concert pianists that they must use the conductors part, or is there some place where you can find just the piano part? Now I understand that as a concert pianist you would need to have a good understanding of the conductor's score, as you would have to know the other parts, just to know when to come in, how your music fits with the clarinet's part, etc. But if you are trying to learn a piano concerto part, then that would be a lot of page turns with out the right part. Any help?

Here's a link to Beethoven's Emperor concerto on IMSLP. It's the piano part. It does contain orchestral cues - so you can see what's happening when you are not playing yourself. But it's all on a single grand staff, no need to look at the whole score.

https://imslp.simssa.ca/files/imglnks/usimg/b/bb/IMSLP529844-PMLP3875-Beethoven_PC_5_ed._d'Albert.pdf

And here's a link to the piano solo part for Mozart's concerto 23

https://ks.petruccimusiclibrary.org/files/imglnks/usimg/0/03/IMSLP37922-PMLP15393-Piano_Concerto_23_-_Piano.pdf

[thegrand88]

Idk if this is helpful, but if you can find the score of the piano concerto on the Musescore website, as a musescore file (.mcsz I think), you can then manually delete the remaining parts, or copy-paste the piano parts onto another file.

Musescore doesn't allow one to download the musescore files anymore last I checked, you need to have a pro account. I wouldn't be unwilling to upgrade and download sheet music from there, except that they really don't have the music I am looking for. They probably have a few concertos, but not a lot, and I am looking for more of a long term solution, like a place where I can always go to any concerto. I will do some more research. Maybe the publisher that brogers70 found on Imslp can be found elsewhere. Thanks for the help!

[brogers70]

Here's another, less famous concerto, where you can get the piano part from IMSLP. I haven't checked that many concerti, but it does always seem possible to get the solo piano part on IMSLP. Often it comes with orchestral cues, but I'd think those would be helpful rather than a problem. What's the concerto for which you cannot find the solo piano part?

https://ks.petruccimusiclibrary.org/files/imglnks/usimg/6/64/IMSLP03590-Hummel_op85_Klavierkonzert_Nr1.pdf

[thegrand88]

What's the concerto for which you cannot find the solo piano part?

I can't seem to find Rachmaninoff's concertos 1,2 and 4. I found 3 on Imslp. I think you are right, it is probably just a handful that can't be found. I looked at a few Beethoven concertos and they had a part. It also could be that the concertos are newer, so they are less likely to be in public domain. I also couldn't find Tchaikovsky's Piano concerto 1 piano part.

[ranjit]

Musescore doesn't allow one to download the musescore files anymore last I checked, you need to have a pro account.

Ah that's sad. I remember reading on their website that they made some changes because they had run into copyright issues. I had forgot about the specifics. Oh well.

[thegrand88]

Hmm. A better question that might fix my problem could be this: In Imslp, they have an arrangement of the concerto for 2 pianos. This might work if the arrangement contains the exact piano part for the actual concerto. So like the one piano part is the actual piano part from the actual concerto including all original annotations like dynamics, articulations, etc, and the other piano part is just an arrangement of the orchestral part or something. It says it was arranged by Rachmaninoff, so I am not sure how he arranged his 2 piano parts. If they do contain the original, then a 2 piano part might actually be useful, as it would contain the condensed orchestral part as well.

[brogers70]

Well, I can't imagine why anybody would arrange a piano concerto for two pianos and distribute the solo part between the two pianos. I expect that one part is simply the solo piano part and the other is a reduction of the orchestra parts. I'm not sure, but that certainly seems most likely.

[ranjit]

If you're ok with a hack-y solution, then you could download the full concerto from imslp, convert the pdf into into gif files, manually crop the pages so that only the piano parts remain & paste them back together on Paint, convert all of it back to a pdf, and take a printout.

Ridiculous, I know, but what have you. It'll probably take less time than waiting for a reply over here if you come to think of it.

ETA: Take a look at this: https://musescore.com/tadahironishida/rachmaninoff-piano-concerto-2

[lowk-_-y]

Some interesting DIY solutions here 

I'm pretty sure that when a pianist learns a concerto, they are using a reduction for 2 pianos, one being the authentic solo part (Piano I) and the other being an orchestral reduction (Piano 2). Most of the main concerto repertoire has a 2 piano arrangement on IMSLP, sometimes by the composer, sometimes not. Even if not by the composer it doesn't matter because the solo part will be authentic, the arrangement of the orchestra will be the only variable.

The arranger may choose to do things like omit the the oboe line in a passage because the strings are the main orchestral interest or they might write an octave tremolo instead of the repeated notes in the full score for ease of playing etc.

Solo piano parts do exist but aren't always going to be available/easily accessible. Imslp 2-piano reductions are available for most pieces and are easily accessible.