Piano concertos - Orchestral part difficulty

[stormx]

Hi!! 

Just curious...

It is often discussed the difficulty of a piano concerto. Of course, being a piano forum, only the piano part is discussed. 

I wonder, for those well known difficult concertos (like Rachmaninov or Brahms), whether the orchestral part is complicate as well.

On the other hand, i think it is unfair that orchestra members are usually completely ignored...
Only the soloist and the conductor get credit 

[pianonut]

basically, when an audience claps for the conductor, he waves to the orchestra in thanks to them, for working with them and for them working with him.  if they are truly 'one' then there is no difference between the applause for him and them.

sometimes you can see this connection take on almost superhuman elements (where they are so in tune with each others tempos, expectations, and melding with the solo instrument) that the applause is generally for all concerned.  imagine these type of recitals are actually few and far between being that there is often not enough practice time for the orchestra, conductor, and pianist to work through difficult places.  time and money constraints. 

where is baron van swieten when we need him?  the money of haydn, mozart, and beethoven - getting their works performed and with all the resources necessary (whether it was 120 voice choir - or large concert hall) was largely due to his donations. 

[Daevren]

Its really hard to tell and requires a thorough analysis of the score.

Because you can divide the music over the instruments you can have all kinds of 'tricks' to make the music really easy to play for the orchestra.

Generally, when the whole orchestra has to play really fast then that is hard, for obvious reasons. Sometimes concerto's have moments where they almost become duets between the solo instrument and another instrument. Surely that is very hard for that other instrument.

And then the general challenge to play well together and with the solist. Thats probably the hardest part.

I think its kind of impossible to classify a whole concerto as easy or hard for all the instruments. One concerto may be very hard for the woodwind and very easy for the string section. Or the other way around.

Also, symphony orchestra members do not have the same skills as solists. The solist has to be an individual, have excellent technique, personality, must be able to transfer emotion and feelings. Orchestra members need to learn pieces really fast and play together well.

 

[thomj]

on a similar note:

i'm currently 'accompanying' a guy playing Mozart's d minor concerto - and OMG the orchestral piano reduction is about a million times harder than the piano part... haha woe is me.

[dinosaurtales]

My teacher told me a story from her competition days, where she was going toi play Ravel's concerto if she got that far.  Well, the conductor came up to her teacher after a certain number of rounds and said "it looks like she might win this one, and we can't do the Ravel" - so she had to pick a different concerto.  So there are limits so some orchestras' capabilities!

[jason2711]

well... all i can say from personal experience is that the second bassoon part (and i think first probably as well) to Tchaicovsky 1 is fairly straight forward