The Piano Concerto

The Piano Concerto The development of keyboard music reached staggering new heights at the turn of the 18th century. It was during this time that the idea of the concerto became a very innovative and popular style of music which combined a large symphony setting and a virtuoso. With the growing popularity of the piano, the end of the 18th century saw a new and more innovative genre of piano concertos. However this concerto received a great deal of criticism due to its lack of proper form and balance between symphony ensemble and soloist. Eventually classical composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, perfected the form of the piano concerto and his approach to writing the concerto was used throughout the classical period. It wasn’t until the early 19th century that other composers had expanded on this idea and found different ways of keeping the piano concerto relevant. The evolution of the piano concerto from the mid-18th century through the 19th century became a detrimental part in music and has solidified its place in music history. The piano concerto did not become relevant until the late 18th century. The Baroque keyboard instruments (Harpsichord, clavichord, and organ) were primarily used throughout the 18th century to write keyboard music. While Mozart’s concept of the concerto was the model for many composers throughout the 19th century, the keyboard concerto was said to have originated in the family of Johann Sebastian Bach. Bach’s greatest contributions to the concerto are his six Brandenburg concertos. Although he primarily wrote these for chamber and orchestral instruments, it was not until the fifth Brandenburg concerto that Bach chose to raise the status of the harpsichord from continuo part to principal soloist, which in essence became the first keyboard concerto. Manfred Bukofzer, German American musicologist has continually stated that the Brandenburg concertos are “the most inspired and complex concerti grossi of the baroque era” (Nelson 10).