Concerto for Orchestra
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Although a concerto is usually a piece of music for one or more solo instruments pitted against an orchestra, several composers have written works with the apparently contradictory title Concerto for Orchestra. This title is usually chosen to emphasise soloistic and virtuosic treatment of the instruments of the orchestra.
For the distinction between the Concerto for Orchestra and the Sinfonia Concertante genres (or: forms): see sinfonia concertante
The best known Concerto for Orchestra is the one by Béla Bartók (1943), although the title had been used several times before.
Concertos for Orchestra (in chronological order)
- Concerto for Orchestra, Opus 38 by Paul Hindemith (1925)
- Concerto for Orchestra by Walter Piston (1933), which is based in part on Hindemith's work
- Concerto for Orchestra by Zoltán Kodály (1939)
- Concerto for Orchestra by Béla Bartók (1943)
- Concerto for String Orchestra by Alan Rawsthorne (1949)
- Concerto for Orchestra by Witold Lutoslawski (1950-54)
- Concerto for Orchestra by Michael Tippett (1962-63)
- Concerto for Orchestra by Roberto Gerhard (1965)
- Concerto for Orchestra by Elliott Carter (1969)
- Concerto for Orchestra by Roger Sessions (1979-81), which won him the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1982
Goffredo Petrassi made the concerto for orchestra something of a speciality, writing eight of them since the 1930s.