Favourite 5 Piano Concertos

Finally someone mentions Scriabin's Piano Concerto! It's very difficult for me to choose just 5, so these are the concertos that come to mind at the moment.

I can't seem to order them, so these are not in any particular order.

Scriabin's Piano Concerto! (If you haven't heard it, listen to it, it is amazing! I highly recommend Anatol Ugorski's recording of it.)

Chopin's 1st and 2nd Piano Concertos.

Rachmaninoff's 2nd and 3rd Piano Concertos.

Grieg's Piano Concerto.

Gershwin's Piano Concerto.

Dvorak's Piano Concerto.

Bach's 1st Piano Concerto.

Brahm's 1st Piano Concerto.

Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto.

To name but a few. :-)

*cough* You said top ten, riiiiiight? Top 5 is torture for somebody who is completely obbessed with piano concertos... Here are my top ten in no particular order.

Piano Concerto no.1-Rachmaninoff Yes, I like Rachmaninoff's first concerto the best, not just the 2nd or 3rd. Have any of you actually heard it?

Piano Concerto John Corigliano

Century Rolls John Adams

Piano Concertos 1 & 2 Brahms

Piano Concerto no. 2 Prokofiev

Piano Concerto no. 1 Moscheles

Piano Concertos 2-3-4 Rachmaninoff Off course, everybody loves Rachmaninoff's 2 & 3 piano concertos. I think his 4th is pretty great too. Please, please people, listen to his 1st & 4th concertos! He wrote four you know, take advantage of that!

OTHER FAVORITES

Piano Concerto in A minor Grieg

The rest of the Prokofiev piano Concertos

All of Kabalevsky's Piano Concertos

All of Beethoven's.

1) Grieg's in A Minor

2) Chopin's 2nd

3) Mozart's 23rd

4) Rachmaninov's 2nd

5) Tchaikovsky's 1st

1. Schumann's piano concerto in a minor

2. Grieg's piano concerto in a minor

3. Mozart's piano concerto no. 20 and no. 21

4. Tchaikovsky's piano concerto no. 1

5. Rachmaninoff's piano concerto no. 2

i like them not because they are famous, but because they all really are wonderful..........

My top 5 favourites in no particular order

-Rachmaninoff's 3rd in D minor

-Mozart's 20th, 21st and 22nd (can I count them as 1? :P)

-Beethoven's ''Emperor'' concerto in E-flat Major

-Grieg's concerto in A minor

-Haydn's Concerto in D Major

Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1

Grieg Piano Concerto No.1

The only two piano concertos you'll ever need to listen to...!

PROKOFIEV 3!

I don't know if I answered this but here goes (again possibly):

Prokovievv: Piano Concerto no.2

Barber: Piano Concerto

Bartok: Piano COncerto no.3

Dello Joio: Fantasy and Variations for piano and orchestra

Ravel: Concerto pour la main gauche

and I can add to that

Rachmaninov: Piano concerto no.4

Debussy: Fantasie pour piano et orchestre

Corigliano: Piano Concerto

Piston: Concertino for piano and chamber orchestra

My alltime favorite is Rach 3. :wub:

Mozart's concertos (21, and maybe 20 excepted) are far too "sunny", irritatingly so.

My best 10 would be (mainly judging by first movements, except Brahms 2 which also has a comparably good 2nd movement):

(1) Tchaikovsky 1 (cliburn, gilels) or Brahms 2 (katchen)

(3) Beethoven 3 (brendal)

(4) Rach 2 (Cliburn)

(5) Beethoven 5

(6) Rach 3 (Horowitz for mov 1 and 2; Argerich for mov 3)

(7) Mozart 21

(8) Schumann 1 (argerich, richter)

(9) Brahms 1

(10) Grieg 1.

The prelude to the cadenza and finale of Mozart 21 mov 1 though is worthy for a high ranking in the list.

I'm not a fan of the fantasy concertos (eg prokofiev) or the emotionless ones (eg Beethoven 1-2 and most of Mozarts)

I don't know. I like Schoenberg, Bartok 3, Barber, Prokofiev 4 (the weird one for left hand), and...well...others. :D I feel like Prokofiev's Fourth deserves more attention than it's gotten. I think people are just turned off by its weirdness.

Here's my five:

1. Barber - Piano Concerto

2. Ravel - Piano Concerto in G Maj.

3. Prokofiev - Piano Concerto No. 3

4. Prokofiev - Piano Concerto No. 2

5. Ravel - Piano Concerto for the Left Hand

Hehehe.

There's no way I can pick just five, so I'm going to create a running list. (in no particular order.)

Tchaikovsky 1

Rach 2

Grieg

Ravel G Major

Ravel Left Hand

Gershwin

Corigliano

Barber

Beethoven Emperor

Rach Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (can't believe nobody's mentioned it yet)

Price Walden

Since I am a stickler for Mozart, I will rank my top few of his Concertos.

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat

Comment: The first movement is my favorite of the three. I cannot really explain why I like the piece, but I will try. It seems very grand to me, interesting dynamics at the beginning. The second movmement is in C-minor. Mozart wrote the majority of his songs in major keys, but his minor songs have yet to disappoint. After an incredible solo, the piece launches into a cheery atmosphere with a very Bach sounding bass part in places. The third movement is very lively and can be heard in the movie Amadeus. I especially like this.

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D-minor

C: Very dark and emotional. The first movement, or rather the first two minutes of the first movement is a favorite of mine. Beethoven's cadenzas are also a pleasant experience. I happen to play the second movement, and I regard it as one of his most beautiful pieces, just after the second movement of the Flute and Harp Concerto K. 199. The third movement is nice, but I would choose the first movement over the third.

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 15 in B-flat

C: The first movement starts off with Mozart's signature chromaticism, and is overall very nice. I havent listened to the second movement enough to form a good opinion. The third movement is my favorite. Its lively use in Amadeus is what brought me onto the song.

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 in A

The first movement is cheery as usual, and while it is nice, not much stands out to me at least. The second movement is in F-sharp Minor, the only song he wrote in this key. It is one of my favorites. The third movement is very impressive. In the beginning for just a measure or two there is this bassoon part where it uses a set of staccato 16th notes, I love it and its apparently hard to play. Also this has a very nice cadence that ends the introduction just before the piano is ushered in.

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 19 in F

The first movement has a minor part that foreshadows the minor part of the Second movement of Concerto No. 20. Also after the intro, the cadence is awesome. In my opinion, Mozart has some of the best cadences I have heard. Again, the second movement will not be given an opinion, but I will edit this soon. Now...the third movement. Its is very fast and has many surprises hidden away. To think I nearly skipped over this concerto... :)

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 6 in B-flat.

This is his second major composition in this area of music. The movements all sound very mellow and cheerful. My favorite is the third, the minor part has a very interesting progression. I would recommend listening to it.

@Sim882 You couldnt be more correct. I too am wishing mozart had written more minor Piano Concertos. But they are cheery, and they have wonderful solos. Have you listened to his Piano Concerto No. 24 in C-minor? Its a very nice piece.

One thing that gets under my skin is that people say Mozart's music has less/no emotion in comparison to Romantic Composers. I read this comment on youtube and I cannot agree more, it reads "Just because Classical Composers didnt wear their hearts on their sleeves doesnt mean their music is without emotion, quite the contrary." I myself am not a fan of Romantic Music. I have listened to a few, but none really give me the thrill of a mozartian piano concerto. But thats just me. :)

K so I feel like answering this again with different concerti.

Schnittke- Concerto for Piano with String Orchestra

Ginastera - Piano Concerto No. 2

Ligeti - Piano Concerto

Bart

I haven't listened to many but my favorites are Mozart's 23rd, the famous Mendelssohn, and the Shostakovich ones.

Shostakovich's second piano concerto is one of two things he wrote that doesn't make me want to inflict pain on myself with all of his anger....

Chopin Piano Concertos 1 and 2....... as my number one! They are so magical you cannot chose between them!

Mozart, No.20. Is also stunning. The second movement is so sweeeeet!

After that, it's hard to decide, I think once you have listed your top two-or three, you think all the rest are mediocre!

I'd like to add Dallapiccola's Piccolo Concerto per Muriel Devreux to my previous list.

Not sure if this counts, but i'd love to add the Poulenc Double Piano Concerto. The writing is amazingly French, and always crystal clear. It's amazing the way Poulenc handles the piano parts.

Price Walden

Not one of my 5 favourites, but the Shostakovich concerto for piano and trumpet contains some really fine music. The trumpet is criminally under-used though.

In no particular order:

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor KV 466

-This piece is actually my favorite piece by Mozart. It's one of his darker works.-

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 "Emperor"

-It makes me feel very happy. lol It's a very ecstatic piece. And the piano parts are very beautiful.-

Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1

-What can I say, it's beautiful. A lot of people say that Chopin's orchestration was bad. I don't know how...-

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 1

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3

-Rachmaninoff simply had a natural talent when it came to writing piano concertos. He makes the piano and orchestra blend like none other. There's not much more I can say about these, because they really speak for themselves. Simply stunning.-

Oops... that's 6. lol Oh well, XD.

Hm...

1. Rachmaninov Piano concerto no. 2

2. Rautavaara Piano concerto no. 1

3. Prokofjev Piano concerto no. 2

4. Bartok Piano concerto no.3

5. Among Slovenian composers I would pick Janez Maticic Piano concerto no. 1

Hadn't seen this thread before.

My top five picks are...

1) Rachmaninov's 2nd.

2) Tchaikovsky's 1st.

3) Prokofiev's 3rd.

4) Beethoven's 4th.

5) Rachmaninov's 3rd.

Honorary mentions to the rest of Rachmaninov's, Grieg's (how could I forget this one?), Beethoven's 3rd and Emperor, Chopin's 1st, Liszt's 1st, Saint-Säens's 3rd, 4th and 5th, Prokofiev's 1st and 2nd, Mozart's 23rd, all of Brahms's, Bach's Concerto in D minor (it's for harpsichord, but what's wrong with that?).

Sadly I can't really point out a noteworthy Costa Rican piece for piano and orchestra - there was a very recent discovery of a piece by Julio Fonseca (d. 1950), but it hasn't been recorded yet.

1) Prokofiev 2nd

2) Bartok 3rd

3) Bartok 1st

4) Ravel Left hand

5) Poulenc Two pianos

Rachmaninoff for me (I said for me) is like soap opera tears... Hold it HOLD it haha, is my opinion only.

Hold it HOLD it haha, is my opinion only.

Fire squad, please :whistling: ...