Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Top 10 Greatest Piano Concertos!

I'm going to have to revise my list somehow and put in the two piano concerto by Mozart. It's my favorite!

Here's my list in no particular order:

1. Beethoven 4
2. Mozart 23
3. Grieg
4. All Rach concerti
5. Bortkiewicz 3
6. Palmgren 2
7. Prokofiev 3
8. Debussy Fantasy
9. Ravel LH
10. All of Chopin's concertante works

Wow. That's a new departure, and good on you! I've always thought it rather still-born, a great piano concerto that might have been.

But surely you rate it as a 'favourite', not presumably one of the 'greatest' per the OP?

The Debussy Fantasy isn't what I'd call a staple, or staple-worthy, but it most definitely deserves to be played a lot more.

I only know about 12 concerti well. If I had to narrow my list down to three it would be...

1) Chopin 1

2) Ravel

3) Mozart 23

These are all fine pieces, but you're young (compared to the rest of us) and you seem to understand that you need to broaden your horizons.

That having been said, here are my top 12, at least tonight, without my having given it a lot of thought. These are not in any particular order:

1. Brahms 1
2. Brahms 2
3. Mozart D minor
4. Mozart C major (with famous second movement; K number escapes me
5,6,7. Beethoven 3,4,5
8,9. Rach. 2,3
10. Schumann
11. Grieg
12. This is a cop-out, but almost everything else. The literature us just so rich. I've omitted many great Mozarts, both Chopins, the Mendelssohns (the D minor is unjustly ignored), some Bachs, the Liszt concerti, a couple of the Saint-Saens pieces, Ravel, one or more Prokofievs,Gershwin's works, and multiple partridges in a "Grove" of pear trees.

And, having made that list, I fully expect that somebody will say "what about x" and I'll respond "Oh, yeah; sorry."

Plus, Joel or someone else could justifiably say that just because he's young doesn't mean that he isn't entitled to his opinion. To which I could agree, perhaps with a familiar aphorism about the ubiquity of opinions, which might just get me banned from the board!

10... try 100! Haha.

Here are my favorite 'sets' of piano concerti.

1. Moszkowski's Piano Concerto in E
This work has to be one of my favorites. The writing itself is quite impressive, but the lyricism is one of the finest. The opening movement's humble woodwinds always get me. And what a finale.. Truly, a work of genius. Hundred times better than Brahms's 2nd Piano Concerto.
2. Respighi's Piano Concerto in A Minor
This work outshines both Schumann's and Grieg's, both written in the same key. I don't understand why this work isn't more well received.
3. Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27
Miraculous work. Absolutely gorgeous, sparse, and bittersweet. This has to be my favorite work by Mozart -- a true swan song of the composer instead of the requiem.
4. Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22
I have to admit that I have a soft spot for Mozart's Piano Concertos, and the E flat ones always move me to tears. No. 22's breathtaking Andante and finale put this work as one of my favorite concertante works.
5. Kabalevsky's Piano Concerto No. 3
Jovial work that carries an equal amount of gravity and recollection. This work is shamefully labeled as a child's play more than often, and ah, what a waltz that the second movement has! One of the most moving moments in music.
6. Kapustin's Piano Concerto No. 2
Quite lush work that NEEDS to be published. Urgently. Kapustin's ingenuity fully shines in this lovely work. Its melodies are memorable and quite fun.
7. Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 2
The reason that this work isn't performed too often is beyond me. The writing is much more coherent than his first piano concerto, and the glowing melodies and pianism outshines any of Tchaikovsky's writings for the piano and the orchestra.
8. Medtner's Piano Concerto No. 2
Sometimes, some works escape my vocabulary. This masterpiece by Medtner is one of those works. I can't pinpoint why I love this work so much, but the work, whilst not as atmospheric as the third and as dramatic as the first concerto of Medtner, is unforgettable. Medtner, with his 'forgotten' melodies, often proves himself to be the most unforgettable writer of melodies.
9. C.P.E.Bach Harpsichord Concerto in A minor, H.403 Wq.1
Gorgeous work that deserves to be heard more often.
10. Ludwig Schytte - Piano Concerto Op. 28
Outrageous work. Puts Liszt to shame -- really!

Please tell me this post is a joke. You lost me at the Moszkowski concerto being "a hundred times better than the Brahms 2nd."

I was not joking, actually.
Whilst Brahms's solo piano works and chamber works inspire me, his concertos aren't to my liking. Sorry if my personal taste has offended yours.

Your personal taste isn't enough to make the Moszkowski "better" than the Brahms 2nd. And it's not a matter of your personal taste versus the personal taste of any other individual, either. The musical culture that made both concertos possible has some values by which these things get assessed, and those values aren't just about what any given individual may feel, but about certain things the culture as a whole has deemed valuable.

And the Moszkowski, in that larger scheme of things (and lovely though it may be), isn't better than the Brahms 2nd.

Let's play the game too .

These are my personal top 10, defined as the ones I'd choose to take with me to a desert island, or the ones I'd choose to learn to play (though I've already had a go at most of them), and play them regularly on that desert island, which, even though it's short of food and fresh water, of course has a Bösie Imperial . Not all of them are called concertos by the composer, BTW.

In no particular order:
Rach 3
Tchaik 2 (not 1)
Prok 2
Mozart No. 20
Beethoven's Emperor
Kimmo Hakola's Piano Concerto
Vincent d'Indy's Symphony on a French Mountain Song
Busoni's Piano Concerto
Ravel's LH Concerto
Weber's Konzertstück in F minor

Remind me again why you folks are being so hostile? Did I make you guys upset or anything?
I'll delete my post if I did any injustice to your favorite composers, but this is ridiculous.

Much prefer Saint-Saens 5 to any of his others. Such an underrated gem, so concise and well written.

That said, here's a list:

1. Beethoven 4
2. Saint-Saens 5
3. Rach 3/2 tie
4. Grieg
5. Beethoven 5
6. Tchaikovsky
7. Albeniz (that's right)
8. Ravel, G major
9. Mozart 20
10. Ginastera 1

Here, I'll remind you. This is Piano World, home of the ridiculous, so welcome! If I say, "It's a fine, sunny day here in Michigan", I just automatically expect to be challenged in short order.

You're fine, albumblatter. Even if you did make someone upset, so what? Aren't you entitled to have your own list of favorites? Go check out the thread "Experts for Mozart Music". You'll find some of our most highly esteemed veteran members going at it like school kids. And they've been doing it for years, but nobody takes anything personally, and neither should you. Stand your ground (unless you believe you were wrong, of course), and learn to take as good as you give.

Now, to help you get acclimated . . .

Brahms 2nd happens to be MY favorite concerto, so you're wrong!!!

I'm giving Saint-Saens 2 another chance. Philippe Entremont with Eugene Ormandy/Philly.

Mozart:d minor
Beethoven:3,4,5
Brahms:1
Chopin:1
Ravel: LH and both hands
Prokofiev:2,3

I give more chances to this concerto than any other work, I think. I just can't get past the first movement. I don't "get" it, it's too much like a fantasia, too much starting and stopping.

Love Saint-Saens, love minor keys, but this one confounds me.

Even the very tightly constructed 2nd movement? Sheer unfettered delight! It would make a great encore along with the equally delightful finale of the 3rd.

But I still feel that the 5th is by far the best of the bunch. It is a piece I rate very highly (as OSK knows!) even outside of the S-S canon. (It is a better work, IMO, than several concertos I have seen on other lists here. )

He also claimed that an obscure work by a Ludwig Schytte "put Liszt to shame," which is an assertion I fear I'd have a hard time understanding after hearing the piece in question.

I've heard the work. (The CD is in my library.) It's actually not bad, and could certainly be revived, along with the Moszkowski, in place of the (all too) standardized stuff we usually get at concerts. (There would have to be one helluva knock-out coupling for me to attend any concert with the Schumann concerto... or Martha would have to be playing.)

But as far as putting Liszt to shame, well that is a bit of a stretch. (To be fair, a fb friend thinks equally highly of the piece, which is why I purchased the CD in the first place.)