Thread by @LeahBroad

Aaaaand we’re off with #50Concertos!! Same rule as #50Symphonies - I’m tweeting one of my favourite concertos a day on this thread, and only one concerto per composer. The Spotify playlist is here:
open.spotify.com/user/leahbroad…
And we’re starting off with…

1. Dobrinka Tabakova Concerto for Cello & String Orchestra. One of the best pieces you will ever hear. Listen to the way the first movement melts into the second, and then the second will break your heart. #50Concertos

2. Beethoven Piano Concerto 4. Because of the opening chords ❤️ #50Concertos

3. Erkki Melartin Violin Concerto. Why is this not in the standard repertory?! I don’t understand. It’s splendiferous. #50Concertos

4. Sally Beamish ‘Seavaigers’ for fiddle, Scottish harp & string orchestra. One of my favourite contemporary concertos. Love the way Beamish creates such evocative timbres & she uses these instruments so imaginatively #50Concertos

5. Elgar Cello Concerto. Tune. #50Concertos

6. Poulenc Concerto for 2 Pianos. This is basically the most fun you can have playing the piano. So nearly picked his Concerto for Organ, Timpani and Strings though #50Concertos

7. Grazyna Bacewicz Concerto for String Orchestra. One of my favourite ever pieces. The startling opening sets it off like a firework and it never drops energy. Amazing. #50Concertos

8. Moritz Moszkowski Piano Concerto. If you like Chopin, this is the concerto for you #50Concertos

9. Vaughan Williams Concerto for Oboe and Strings. RVW at his finest. This is a wonderfully nuanced concerto, and if you’d like to read more then oboist Jonathan Small has written a fascinating piece on it here jonathansmalloboe.com/writings/2018/… #50Concertos

10. Dora Pejacevic Piano Concerto in G Minor. Gloriously romantic and sumptuously orchestrated, this is a concerto for cold winter nights when the wind is howling outside and it’s pouring with rain #50Concertos

(And if you're in the mood for more Pejacevic, also check out her superfluously good Phantasie Concertante for a little bit of #MondayMotivation open.spotify.com/track/7gpxt5QH…)

11. Florence Price Violin Concerto No. 1. Price’s symphonies have been getting a tonne of press recently but she also wrote a load of great music in other genres, such as this violin concerto. #50Concertos #BOTD

12. Happy birthday to Errollyn Wallen, today’s composer with her Cello Concerto. This concerto has some extraordinarily powerful & intense writing. It never drops in intensity & seems to spill over into the silence after the final note #50Concertos #BOTD

13. Bartók Concerto for Orchestra. This is a beautifully introspective and multi-faceted piece. It's been interpreted many ways, most popularly as Bartók's response to WWII & his exile - an interpretation Bartók never publicly commented on #50Concertos

14. Amanda Maier Violin Concerto. I talk a lot about Maier, because she is INCREDIBLE. She regularly performed this piece herself, and it got great reviews from the Swedish press at its premiere #50Concertos

15. Cecile Chaminade Flute Concertino. Legend has it that Chaminade wrote this for her lover, a principal flautist, making it fiendishly difficult as punishment for marrying another woman. Sadly, it’s probably just legend…#50Concertos

...In any case, the piece *was* commissioned by the Paris Conservatoire in 1902 as an exam piece. Unlike many of Chaminade’s other works which have sadly fallen out of the standard repertory, this is still frequently performed today #50Concertos

16. Kamilló Lendvay Concertino Semplice for Cimbalom. You know what you probably don’t have enough of in your life? Cimbaloms. Dw. Kamilló Lendvay has a piece to start fixing that. What a bloomin great instrument. #50Concertos

17. Takashi Yoshimatsu Saxophone Concerto ‘Cyber-bird’. This is such a fun piece. Combines influences from jazz, Western classical, rock, you name it. #50Concertos

18. Roxanna Panufnik Violin Concerto 'Abraham’. Based on the story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. I love how Panufnik builds up layers of sound, but the violin never merges into the orchestra #50Concertos

(And because this piece is unavailable on Spotify, it's bonus symphony time which iiiiiiiiiiiis... Brahms Piano Concerto no. 2.) #50Concertos

*concerto. Bonus *concerto time. Come on pre-coffee brain.

19. Alexander Goedicke Horn Concerto. Goedicke was a Russian composer, who's extremely rarely performed now. This concerto was published in 1929 - it's not as bombastic as some horn concertos can be (!). Instead it's gently lyrical with a v playful finale

20. Vivaldi/Max Richter ‘Four Seasons’. Love the Four Seasons? Or heard them one too many times? Either way, try Richter’s take because it’s a phenomenal homage/reimagining of this classic #50Concertos

21. Germaine Tailleferre Concerto for 2 pianos, chorus, 4 saxophones & orchestra. Tailleferre is one of my favourite composers ever, and this is one excellent reason why. Concertos don’t get more extravagant or imaginative than this. #50Concertos

And seeing as this isn't on Spotify, IT'S BONUS CONCERTO TIME. Going for the concertino for harp and orchestra. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAILLEFERRE. #50Concertos

22. Shostakovich Piano Concerto 2. Because how can you not with a second movement like that. Here's the man himself playing #50Concertos

23. Marie Jaëll Cello Concerto. Completely torn between this and her 1st piano concerto, but cello won out. It’s just so playful and melodically inventive #50Concertos

24. Henriëtte Bosmans Piano Concertino. Bosmans was a Dutch pianist & composer whose music was banned during WWII when she refused to become a member of the Kultuurkamer. This Ravel-esque work was penned in 1928 #50Concertos

25. We’re now halfway through #50Concertos! And today’s composer is Ethel Smyth, with her Concerto for Violin, Horn and Orchestra.

26. (Probably) Pergolesi Concerto for flute in G major. It’s quite likely Pergolesi wrote this. Whoever wrote it, the slow movement is stunning. #50Concertos

27. Luise Adolpha Le Beau Piano Concerto in D minor. From the very first notes this concerto is EXCELLENT and a complete virtuoso showcase #50Concertos #BOTD

28. Mendelssohn Piano Concerto 2. The violin concerto gets so much love, but M’s piano concertos are also fab. Drama in the opening, sparkling writing in the finale #50Concertos

29. Ernest Bloch Concerto Grosso 1. This is just such a pleasure from Bloch’s “neoclassical” phase. The fugue finale is probably my favourite movement #50Concertos

30. Anna Kuzina Piano Concerto. If you like Tchaikovsky & Rachmaninov, try Kuzina. This is a sumptuously imaginative concerto, full of drama and virtuosic piano writing, performed here in 2006 by the composer herself #50Concertos

...Not available on Spotify, so today's bonus concerto is Mozart's piano concerto in D minor

31. Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, Violin Concerto in Bb Major. This is just such an uplifting concerto. The outer movements are sparky and joyous, and the slow movement gloriously lyrical and calming #50Concertos