A concerto ( / k ə n ˈ tʃ ɛər t oʊ / ; plural concertos or concerti from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typical three-movement structure, a slow movement (e.g., lento or adagio) preceded and followed by fast movements (e.g., presto or allegro), became a standard from the early 18th century.

The concerto originated as a genre of vocal music in the late 16th century. The instrumental variant appeared around a century later, when Italians such as Arcangelo Corelli and Giuseppe Torelli began publishing their concertos. A few decades later, Venetian composers, such as Antonio Vivaldi, wrote hundreds of violin concertos and also created solo concertos for other instruments, like the cello or woodwind instruments, and concerti grossi for a group of soloists. The first keyboard concertos, such as George Frideric Handel’s organ concertos and Johann Sebastian Bach’s harpsichord concertos, were written around the same time.

In the second half of the 18th century, the piano became the most used keyboard instrument. Composers of the Classical Era, such as Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Ludwig van Beethoven, each wrote several piano concertos, and to a lesser extent, violin concertos and concertos for other instruments. In the Romantic Era, many composers, including Giuseppe Verdi, Niccolò Paganini, Felix Mendelssohn, Frédéric Chopin, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, continued to write solo concertos and, more rarely, concertos for more than one instrument. Concertos for instruments other than the piano, violin, and cello remained less common during the 19th century.

In the first half of the 20th century, concertos were written by composers such as Maurice Ravel, Edward Elgar, Richard Strauss, Sergei Prokofiev, George Gershwin, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Joaquín Rodrigo, and Béla Bartók, who also composed a concerto for orchestra without a soloist. During the 20th century, concertos were written for orchestral instruments that had been less used in the 19th century, such as the clarinet, viola, and French horn.

In the second half of the 20th century and into the 21st century, many composers continued to write concertos, including Alfred Schnittke, György Ligeti, Dmitri Shostakovich, Philip Glass, and James MacMillan. An interesting feature of this period is the increase in concertos for less common instruments, including the double bass (by composers like Eduard Tubin or Peter Maxwell Davies) and cor anglais (by composers like MacMillan and Aaron Jay Kernis). Concertos for folk instruments, such as the balalaika, accordion, and harmonica, were also written. Additionally, Deep Purple’s Concerto for Group and Orchestra, a concerto for a rock band, was composed.

Concertos from earlier periods remain a major part of the repertoire for performances and recordings. While it is less common now for performers to compose concertos for themselves to play, some composer-performers, such as Daniil Trifonov, continue this practice.

Genre

The Italian word concerto, which means "accord" or "gathering," comes from the Latin verb concertare, meaning "to compete" or "to fight."

The word "concerto" first appeared in the titles of printed music in 1587, when the Concerti by Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli were published.

In the 17th century, religious music that included voices and an orchestra was often called a concerto. Johann Sebastian Bach used the word "concerto" for many of his works, now known as cantatas. At first, the term "concerto" described music where both voices and instruments had separate parts. This was different from earlier practices, where instruments only repeated the parts sung by voices. Examples of this style include Giovanni Gabrieli’s In Ecclesiis and Heinrich Schütz’s Saul, Saul, was verfolgst du mich.

The concerto began to take its modern form during the late Baroque period, starting with the concerto grosso style developed by Arcangelo Corelli. In Corelli’s works, the concertino group included two violins, a cello, and a basso continuo. For example, in J.S. Bach’s Fifth Brandenburg Concerto, the concertino consists of a flute, a violin, and a harpsichord. The harpsichord plays both as a solo instrument and as part of the orchestra’s continuo section.

Over time, the concerto evolved into its modern form, where the concertino usually includes a single solo instrument playing with or against an orchestra. Important Baroque composers of concertos included Tommaso Albinoni, Antonio Vivaldi, Georg Philipp Telemann, Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel, Pietro Locatelli, Jean-Marie Leclair, Giuseppe Tartini, Francesco Geminiani, and Johann Joachim Quantz. These composers studied the Italian style of writing music, known as all’Italiana.

During the Baroque period, concertos were often written for string instruments like the violin, viola, or cello, or for wind instruments such as the flute, oboe, or trumpet. Bach also composed a concerto for two violins and orchestra. Keyboard concertos were rare before the piano was invented, except for George Frideric Handel’s twelve organ concertos and Johann Sebastian Bach’s thirteen harpsichord concertos.

The concertos written by Johann Sebastian Bach’s children, like C.P.E. Bach, helped connect Baroque concertos to those of the Classical era. Classical concertos often followed a structure called sonata form in their first movements, and their final movements were frequently in rondo form, as seen in J.S. Bach’s E Major Violin Concerto.

Mozart wrote five violin concertos, four in 1775 and one in 1773. His works showed influences from Italian and Austrian styles, and some parts resemble folk music from Austria. He also composed the Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola, and orchestra. Haydn wrote three violin concertos and two for cello. Beethoven’s only surviving violin concerto was later recognized as a masterpiece after a performance by Joseph Joachim in 1844.

C.P.E. Bach’s keyboard concertos included challenging solo passages and movements that flowed together without breaks. As a child, Mozart arranged keyboard and orchestra versions of sonatas by lesser-known composers and Johann Christian Bach. By age 20, Mozart could write complex ritornelli for the orchestra, allowing it to highlight contrasting themes before the soloist entered. Of his 27 piano concertos, the last 17 are highly regarded. Eleven keyboard concertos are attributed to Haydn, seven of which are considered authentic. Beethoven wrote five piano concertos.

C.P.E. Bach composed five flute concertos and two oboe concertos. Mozart wrote four horn concertos, two for flute, one for oboe (later rearranged for flute as Flute Concerto No. 2), one for clarinet, one for bassoon, one for flute and harp, and Exsultate, jubilate, a piece for soprano voice that functions as a concerto. These works highlight the unique qualities of each solo instrument. Haydn wrote a significant trumpet concerto and a Sinfonia Concertante for violin, cello, oboe, bassoon, and orchestra. He also composed a concerto for double bass, though it was lost in a fire in 1779.

In the 19th century, concertos became more complex and focused on showing the skill of solo performers. While Baroque concertos were typically about 10 minutes long, Beethoven’s concertos could last 30 minutes or more. The term concertino or Konzertstuck ("Concert Piece") began to describe shorter works, though this distinction was never officially defined.

During the Romantic era, the cello became a more common concerto instrument, though the violin and piano remained popular. Beethoven contributed to the repertoire with a Triple Concerto for piano, violin, cello, and orchestra. Later, Brahms wrote a Double Concerto for violin, cello, and orchestra.

Many 20th-century concertos reflect the late Romantic style. Notable works include Edward Elgar’s violin and cello concertos, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s and Nikolai Medtner’s piano concertos, Jean Sibelius’s violin concerto, Frederick Delius’s violin, cello, and piano concertos, Karol Szymanowski’s violin concertos, and Richard Strauss’s horn, violin, and Don Quixote (a tone poem featuring the cello).

In the early 20th century, composers like Debussy, Schoenberg, Berg, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Bartók began experimenting with new musical ideas. These included using non-Western scales, exploring dissonance, developing atonality, and creating the twelve-tone technique. These changes influenced the concerto form, leading to new ways of writing and performing music. Innovations also redefined virtuosity, emphasizing techniques like extended instrumental methods and focusing on aspects like sound quality, pitch, and dynamics. The roles of soloists and orchestras also evolved in some works.

Two major innovators of early 20th-century music, Arnold Schoenberg and Igor Stravinsky, had significant impacts on how music was composed and performed.

By type

• Coloratura Soprano Concerto: Reinhold Glière
• Bach: Italian Concerto, Weimar Concerto Transcriptions
• Serry's Concerto in C Major for Free Bass Accordion
• Bach's Concerto for Two Harpsichords, BWV 1061.1
• Telemann's Concertos for Four Violins
• Webern's Concerto for Nine Instruments
• Stravinsky's Concerto for Two Pianos
• Vivaldi: Nos. 3, 6, 9, and 12 of L'estro armonico; La stravaganza; Six Violin Concertos, Op. 6 (Ten of the Twelve Concertos, Op. 7); Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (which includes The Four Seasons); Five of the Six Concertos, Op. 11; Six Violin Concertos, Op. 12; Grosso mogul
• Bach: Violin Concerto in A Minor; Violin Concerto in E Major
• Mozart: No. 1 in B Flat Major, K. 207; No. 2 in D Major, K. 211; No. 3 in G Major, K. 216 (Straßburg); No. 4 in D Major, K. 218; No. 5 in A Major, K. 219 (Turkish)

Early Romantic traits appear in Viotti's violin concertos. However, Spohr's twelve violin concertos, written between 1802 and 1827, truly show the Romantic spirit with their melodies and dramatic parts.

• Arnold Schoenberg
• Igor Stravinsky
• Alban Berg
• Bartók wrote two concertos for violin.
• Russian composers Prokofiev and Shostakovich each wrote two concertos, while Khachaturian wrote a concerto and a Concerto-Rhapsody for the instrument.
• Hindemith's concertos resemble the forms of the 19th century, even though his harmonic language was different.
• Three violin concertos by David Diamond show the form in neoclassical style.
• In 1950, Carlos Chávez completed a significant Violin Concerto with a long, unaccompanied violin cadenza.
• Dutilleux's L'Arbre des songes is an important addition to the repertoire and a fine example of the composer's atonal yet melodic style.
• Other composers of major violin concertos include John Adams, Samuel Barber, Benjamin Britten, Peter Maxwell Davies, Miguel del Aguila, Philip Glass, Cristóbal Halffter, György Ligeti, Frank Martin, Bohuslav Martinů, Carl Nielsen, Walter Piston, Alfred Schnittke, Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton, John Williams, and Roger Sessions.

• Elfman's Violin Concerto
• Viola Concerto in G Major (Telemann)
• Franz Anton Hoffmeister: Viola Concerto in D Major; Viola Concerto in B-Flat Major
• Carl Stamitz: Viola Concerto in D Major, Op. 1
• Carl Friedrich Zelter: Viola Concerto in E♭ Major, ICZ 17
• Viola Concerto: Aho, Arnold, Bartók, del Aguila, Denisov, Gagneux, Gubaidulina, Hindemith, Kancheli, Martinů, Milhaud, Murail, Penderecki, Schnittke, Takemitsu, Walton

The 'core' repertoire—most often performed among cello concertos—is by Elgar, Dvořák, Saint-Saëns, Haydn, Shostakovich, and Schumann. However, many other concertos are also performed frequently.

• Vivaldi's Cello Concertos: RV 398–403, 405–414, and 416–424
• Haydn wrote two cello concertos (for cello, oboes, horns, and strings), which are the most important works in that genre from the Classical era.
• Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wrote three cello concertos, and Luigi Boccherini wrote twelve cello concertos.
• Antonín Dvořák's cello concerto is among the greatest examples from the Romantic era, while Robert Schumann's focuses on the lyrical qualities of the instrument.
• The instrument was also popular with composers of the Franco-Belgian tradition: Saint-Saëns and Vieuxtemps each wrote two cello concertos, and Lalo and Jongen wrote one each.
• Tchaikovsky's contribution to the genre is a series of Variations on a Rococo Theme. He also left very incomplete sketches of a planned Cello Concerto. Cellist Yuriy Leonovich and Tchaikovsky researcher Brett Langston published their completion of the piece in 2006.
• Carl Reinecke, David Popper, and Julius Klengel also wrote cello concertos that were popular in their time and are still played occasionally today.
• Elgar's popular concerto, written in the early 20th century, reflects the Romantic style.

• Double Bass Concerto: McGowan
• Piccolo Concerto: Davies, Liebermann
• Recorder Concerto: Malcolm Arnold, Richard Harvey
• Shakuhachi Concerto: Takemitsu

• Vivaldi: Two of the Twelve Concertos, Op. 7; One of the Six Concertos, Op. 11
• Handel: Oboe Concerto No. 1; Oboe Concerto No. 2; Oboe Concerto No. 3
• Mozart: Oboe Concerto
• Vincenzo Bellini: Oboe Concerto
• Oboe Concerto