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Of those I've only heard the Paderewski once during a concert. And I think the piece itself is not bad, but I couldn't like it. It was a nice show-off piece I think, butI think the sound is just like unsuccesful a wannabee Chopin or Liszt concerto.

But that's not strange with me. I have often enough had the feeling that I can't understand why i didn't like piece which now is one of my favorites (e.g. Prokofiev pieces, Rach 3, Liszt Sonata). So I might like that concerto some day .

Definately give the Paderewski another listen, it's a great piece.

In no particular order.

Medtner 1
Medtner 2
Medtner 3
Rachmaninov 2
Ravel left hand (D major)
Beethoven 4
Beethoven 5
Brahms 1
Brahms 2
Alkan Concerto for solo piano

My top 10 (a bit silly, and some of my fav recording of the concerto)

#1 Brahms 2nd (Gilels/Reiner, Richter/Mazaal, Richter/Mravinsky, Fleisher)

#2 Beethoven 4th (Backhaus, Gilels)

#3 Prokofiev 2nd (Bronfman, Krainev)

#4 Brahms 1st (Horowitz, Andre Watts, Katchen, Flesiher)

#5 Prokofiev 3rd (Kapell)

#6 Bartok 2nd (Richter)

#7 Rachmaninoff 2nd (Volodos, Rachmaninoff himself, zimerman)

#8 Chopin 1st (Zimerman, Yundi Li, Bleachez)

#9 Henselt (Hamelin)

#10 Scriabin (Solomon)

1. brahms 2
2. brahms 1
3. beethoven 5
4. beethoven 4
5. beethoven 3.
6. mozart 23
7. mozart 20
8. tchaikovsky 1
9. rach 3
10. bach d major

tchaikovsky 1, rach 2, rach 3,prokofiev 3, prokofiev 2, prokofiev 1, beethoven 'emperor', tchaikovsky 2,chopin 1, chopin 2,

Maybe I'm off base here (I have been known to be, every so often), but I have to make a rather obvious statement. Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so is greatness in the ears of the listener...not by some abstract critical analysis by a musicologist. (Just what is a musiciologist anyhow?) Just as in art, we may not know a lot about it, but we know what we like. And it doesn't matter (at least to me and I hope many others)what the so-called experts say. Personally, I can't see what the big deal is about Van Gough. My kid, at the age of 10, painted better (again, my opinion).

When oh when are we going to start thinking for ourselves? If you happen to think that a certain concerto is great (even if you haven't heard all of them), then that concerto is great (to you). I happen to think Chopin's concertos are great, and I can just imagine the response that remark will inspire. Be not afraid...you are ENTITLED to your opinion. Isn't that in the Constitution somewhere?

Thank you Rhapsody. I can't believe it. Another person who admires Chopin's concertos. And here I thought I was all alone. You must have the heart of a poet.

1. Beethoven 5
2. Brahms 2
3. Saint-Saens Carnival of the Animals
4. Tchaikovsky 1
5. Mozart almost any concerto because to me, they are very similar
6. Rach 2
7. Rach Rhapsody (does this count?)
8. Gershwin 1
9. Schumann
10. Moszkowski (Yeah!)


With the exception of the 2 at the top and the two at the bottom, this list is pretty flexible.

That's not a piano concerto.


(It's just an ensemble work that happens to include two pianists)

Concerti that I believe are masterpieces:

Mozart c minor
Beethoven B-flat
Beethoven G major
Liszt A major
Brahms d minor
Brahms B-flat
Ravel LH
Rachmaninov f# minor
Prokofiev g minor
Barber (the greatest post-1950 concerto, IMO)

Pieces that aren't really concerti per se, but I love them:
Messiaen, Turangalila-Symphonie
Bernstein, Age of Anxiety (needs the right performance, though)
Bach, Brandenburg 5

1.Rachmaninov No2
2.Beethoven No3
3.Mendelssohn No.1
4.Brahms No2 g minor (it's called "Saint-Saens"!)
5.Schumann a minor (forgot the No.)
6.Chopin No.1
7.Mozart No.23
8.Rach. No3
9.Grieg a minor
10.Brahms No.1 d minor

Well Brendan, that makes two of us.

Surprised nobody else even mentioned it.

What does being a slave to your unconscious conditionings and initial emotional responses have to do with thinking for yourself?

If an expert has a very high opinion of some particular work of art (music, painting, literature, cinema, or whatever), and if I, on the other hand, don't find that particular work of art to be of much significance, then I usually at least try to think that there probably is something very significant in that particular work of art, and that I just can't see it, and that if I tried harder, I would, eventually, be able to see its (full) value, and my life would thus be enhanced.

If you rather find flaws and vapidness in masterworks than in your own perception and mind, there will be little chance of any kind of significant intellectual, aesthetic, or spiritual growth. (That, of course, is not to say that it wouldn't be a good thing, also, to be able to find worth in more obscure, or less professional or deliberate works or things.)

Um, don't you mean Saint-Saens Concerto No. 2 in g minor. Brahms had nothing to do with that one. Brahms second piano concerto (in Bb), a great piece in its own right, is absolutely nothing like the Saint-Saens g-minor concerto.

Oh, and Schumann only wrote the piano concerto in a minor.

Interesting thread, I would have to say (in particular order):

Beethoven 4 and 5, Liszt 2, Brahms 1 and 2, Saint-Saens 2, Scharwenka 4, Chopin 2, Alkan (for solo piano) and Schumann.


I also like the Dvorak concerto! My field of interest is neglected composers so I'll also make mention of Stavenhagen, Goetz and Tausig (he did write a concerto but no one's recorded it yet. I think I read somewhere the score maybe lost)

I'm not sure I know enough piano concertos by heart to give a very representative account of a top 10, but I'm surprised no one has even mentioned my unbeatable favourite yet: György Ligeti's!

Yes,you might right, actually I record this g minor from a friend's CD, and all about the CD is Brahms' pieces, (the front cover and big title, all showed it's Brahms' music)so I really confused, and I saw an article says that Brahms and Saint-Saens are friends! So I guess this piece was Brahms wrote for his friend! What an embarressing mistake. Yes, I really love the g minor Op22 one.
And now I remember that Schumman only had one conterto. Thank you!

Brahms was also friends with Schumann. When Schumann tried to kill himself, failed, and went to the looney bin (where he died), Brahms was in the process of writing his first (D Minor) piano concerto, and he was so depressed about his friend. You can hear this intense sadness and anger in Brahms's first concerto.

Brahms must have also been slightly relieved, though, because after Robby died, Brahms moved in with Clara (Mrs. Schumann).

Sam!

:rolleyes: