Hi all,

this is my first post here. I am currently studying piano with a good teacher and he would like me to learn a concerto. He gave me a list of these concertos:

Mozart's Concerto No 13
Mozart's Concerto No 19
Beethoven's Concerto No 2
Shostakovich's Concerto No 2
Grieg's Concerto

He also said he's open to new suggestions, personally I am also considering the following:

Scriabin's F# Minor Concerto
Franck's Symphonic Variations

I am actually leaning towards the Scriabin's Concerto as my first choice. I have not played any Scriabin pieces before but I absolutely love the concerto which I think is very Chopinesque. I heard the recording several times and it seems there is no noticeable technical difficulty i.e. it sounds easier than other Romantic Concerto such as Grieg's. However, perhaps more opinions from people who have played these concertos would aid me better in my choice.

Not sure any of those qualify as a 'beginner concerto.' The title of the thread may be a touch misleading.

I think we'll be able to offer better opinions if we know a bit more about your past repertoire, your length of study, and your general ability level with the repertoire that you have mastered.

My son is working on the Grieg, but it is not his first concerto. His 'beginner concerto' was quite a bit less technically demanding.

The last repertoire I have worked are as follow:

Chopin's Ballade No 3
Beethoven's Sonata Op 27 No 1
Mozart's Adagio in B minor
Bach's Partita No 1
Chopin's Nouvelle Etude no 2

So far I have not meet any serious technical difficulty yet, although the last section of the Chopin's Ballade took me some time to work out.

as Piano Dad has said, none of those piano concertos that you listed above are actually beginner concertos.
a couple of examples would be:
the 2 haydn concertos and the early mozart concertos

at your level, assuming that you really can play those pieces well, you should be able to cope with one of those that u have listed.

and if you have a teacher, you really should tell him/her that you are interested in learning a concerto

Can't go wrong with the Grieg!

the Kabalevsky is a really nice work, too.

I was just given my first concerto: Bach F minor BWV 1056. It's got lots of challenges without being overwhelming. Bach concertos are nice because there are very few gaps when just the orchestra is playing. I'm working with Music Minus One which helps a lot.

My teacher also suggested the Grieg or Schumann.

im learning my first concerto at the moment, or rather one movement, the first mvt. the schumann piano concerto.
its a great piece (or mvt) and not too hard yet. there are no too difficult passages for me in it yet, but i hvaent freached yet the cadenza which looks a bit more tricky.

i think its worth taking a look at for you anyway,

I don't have any experience with these,
except for some work on the Grieg,
and I've done some work on the Scriabin
No. 5 sonata.

I'm against the idea of so-called "starter
concertos," that are supposedly the stepping-stone
to the big Romantic Era concertos. First,
these "starters" are not all that easy to
play in themselves. Then, the player has
no real interest in them, and so that's
a lot of work on something you're going
to end up discarding and never playing
again, because you'd be embarassed to have
something like that in your repertoire.

Therefore, provided the teacher has it
in his repertoire and/or is willing to
teach it to you, I see no problem with
the Scriabin as your first concerto.

Mozart's Concerto No 13
Mozart's Concerto No 19
Beethoven's Concerto No 2
Shostakovich's Concerto No 2
Grieg's Concerto

I don't think anyone would be embarrassed to have any of those concertos in their repertoire. All of them are pretty nice.

I can understand why a piano major, an aspiring piano major, or an actively concertizing pianist would learn the concerto repertoire. But I'm puzzled why amateur pianists would do so when they do not have an orchestra at their disposal or two pianos available with a willing accompanist to play the orchestral reduction.

Is it like climbing Everest? -- to say that you've done it.

Wouldn't it be more satisfying to find a few other instrumentalists with whom to play the wonderful chamber music literature for piano (e.g., Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel, Fauré, Dvořák, Smetana, Tchaikovsky, etc.)? This music is every bit as challenging (well, maybe there are no flashy cadenzas for the piano) and very beautiful.

Copake, there are a number of reasons why
I, a run-of-the-mill amateur, have put
it yrs. of agonizing hard work to learn
a big-time Romantic Era concerto movement that
I can play at about 3/4 speed.

First, composers generally save their
best work for the biggest pieces, which
are the concertos. So by avoiding
the concertos you miss out on a composer's
best work in many cases.

I see no problem with playing a concerto
solo, using a two-piano score. I actually
find it interesting to play the orchestra's
part, which is something I would have
no experience with otherwise.

It gives you stature in the piano world.
Often advanced players use the fact that
they can play big concertos to intimidate
other players, but now I'm not intimidated
by such people and can talk at the same
level as they do and know when they are
trying to pull the wool over your eyes.

There is not much difference in difficulty
between concertos and shorter pieces.
The main problem is just greater length, and
so why not play them? If you can play
a Chopin ballade, you can play one of
his concerto movements.

Good point Copake.

I'm learning a concerto (Bach) because I love the music but it is disappointing to think I may never have a chance to play it with an orchestra. Music Minus One helps and it is improving my technque quite a bit. I'm working hard on keeping my tempo very even so I come in with the MMO orchestra. It's improving my overall evenness.

My teacher conducts an amateur orchestra and I was hoping he might ask me to play with them. He has recently hooked me up with a flutist to do a Stamitz duet.

The original poster said:
I am currently studying piano with a good teacher and he would like me to learn a concerto. He gave me a list of these concertos:

opps, sorry my mistake.
go with the one that you love then

No love for Scriabin Concerto? I am actually still hesitant. I've just downloaded the score for the Scriabin's from IMLSP and it seems okay at the first glance. But at closer look, there are really nasty polyrhythms and difficult arpeggios in both hands. According to someone in another piano forum, the concerto is extremely difficult technically. I've told my teacher that I would wish to do the Scriabin. He said that he had never heard the concerto but personally he would never equate Scriabin with the word easy. In the end he told me as long I think the Concerto is manageable I should go with whatever choice I will make.

Ah, the Scriabin concerto is beautiful and highly underrated. Needs to be played more often (so you need to fix that).

Aye, a delectable example of early Scriabin. In my limited experience I cannot recall any instance of it being programmed in concert, at least on this side of the pond.

Yes, it is difficult, but no more so than the 3rd sonata.

On web piano forums that's all you hear:
such and such concerto is too difficult;
you can't play such and such concerto
without first spending yrs. doing work
on such and such; you have to play at
least three starter concertos and
5 of Scriabin's other works before you have
the "understanding" necessary to play
the concerto, etc. But the people who
post that kind of thing--and there are
a lot of them on this forum too--typically
are adult players who can't get up the
nerve to tackle a big concerto, even though
they are advanced enough for it, and so
they try to discourage others from
attempting one.

Nasty polyrhythms, finger-twisting arpeggios
in a concerto? Well, what else is new.
These are the kind of things you run
into routinely in big concertos, and you
just take them in stride. They are all
playable with practice.

Shostakovich - extremely entertaining