10 Piano Concertos...Your Opinion? :-)

My piano teacher is doing a really cool thing with me. She told me to pick 10 piano concertos that I thought best represented the development of the genre, tell her why I think each piece is so great, and then we are going to start working on all of them. There's no way one could sum up this genre in 10 pieces. After talking with some piano major friends of mine for some direction, here's the ones I picked...

Mozart's Concerto No. 20 in D minor

Beethoven's Concerto No. 3 in C minor

Liszt's Concerto No. 2 in A major

Brahms' Concerto No. 1 in D minor

Tchaikovsky's Concerto in Bb minor Op. 23

Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2 in C minor

Prokofieff's Concerto No. 2 in G minor

Ravel's Concerto pour la main gauche

Schoenberg's Concerto Op. 42

Bartok's Concerto No. 3

The thing is, I know all of these (and not just these) pieces are great. I want to learn as much as I can about these pieces before I start playing them. I have my own ideas about each of them, but I'm just wondering what you all think...maybe you will say something that I haven't considered.

Thanks for all of your help! I hope you have a wonderful day! :D

About the Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2 in C minor:

I'm sure you know that Rachmaninoff was so sad while writing that piece, because his first symphony wasn't so successful. The famous first movement is one of the most famous Rachmaninoff pieces. The first 8 bars with those fantastic and huge accords are the symbols of the romantic-piano-concerto style. Think about it. I think you will know what to do with that :)

I'm hungarian, so I could speak to you a lot about Bart

and don't forget to mention that, if I recall correctly, the theme of the 2nd movement of that Rachmaninov concerto is actually by another composer.

My own list would be:

Bach - Brandenburg concerto no.5

Mozart - Concerto no. 20 in d minor

Beethoven - Concerto no. 4

Beethoven - Concerto no. 5

Liszt - Concerto no. 2

Brahms - Concerto no. 2

Rachmaninoff - Concerto no. 3

Rachmaninoff - Paganini Rhapsody

Ravel - Concerto for the left hand

Prokofiev - Concerto no. 3

Wasn't the Brandenburg for harpsichord? :P

I would use Prokofiev's Concerto No. 4 for the Left Hand personally, although it doesn't really sum up the development of the genre at all...

and I would use the Prokovievv 2nd instead, which in my opinion DOES represent the evolution of the piano and pianistic writing.

I will respectfully disagree! I think that his 3rd concerto is way more 'pianistic'. There is no doubt that the 2nd is the more massive concerto though. I guess it depends on whether you feel that the concerto after Prokofiev headed in the 'big' direction or the 'lean' direction. They both really deserve to be there and are quite different examples of the piano concerto.

I certainly wouldn't use the 4th though, unless the list was oddest piano concerti. (The Busoni would be in there too.)

yes, Nightscape, the Proko 3rd is pure pianistic writing. And it IS a concerto I admire greatly for that.

I just feel that the 2nd (which actually comes after the 3rd, really, since it was rewritten) shows more of an evolution as to form and the treatment of the instrument. It demonstrates a willingness to move away from the "classical" balance and textural treatment of the piano concerto until that time.