Best contemporary piano concertos

[raduneo]

I searched for a thread with the best post-1960 Piano Concertos, but could find nothing. This has become an obsession of mine, so I had to start this thread. I used to think there no good piano concerto was written after Bartok and Prokofief's, but clearly I was wrong; some great piano concertos have been written in the second half ofthe twenieth century (and maybe even later)!!
My nominations so far are:

-The Barber
-The Lutoslawski
-The Ligeti
-The Norgard
-The Lindberg
-The Salonen
-The Shostakovich 2nd (this is a lighter one but very fun nonetheless, with a moving middle movement and a sparkling finale)
-The Carter (this one I am still struggling with, but I believe it's up there!)

What are your nominations? Have I forgot any important ones? Discuss!

(Note: I tried ONLY including Piano Concertos, and NOT other works for Piano and Orchestra).

[Lethevich]

Rădulescu, Ustvolskaya (Concerto for piano, string orchestra and timpani), Schnittke (1979), Dallapiccola.

It doesn't count, but Górecki's Harpsichord Concerto is good stuff.

[DieNacht]

Some of my favourites include

- Nørgård;
- Messiaen "Des Canyons aux Etoiles",
- Carter "Interventions" & "Dialogues",
- Keuris (1980),
- Schnittke (1979),
- Takemitsu "Riverrun" (especially the BIS recording),
- Ruders (1994)
- Lutoslawski
- Shostakovich 2nd
- Barber
- Sandström (neo-Romantic)
- Matthias Hammerth (neo-Romantic)
- Felix Glonti "Wanderjahre" (1990; Kavtaradze-recording)
- Gubajdulina (BIS recording, by far)
- Sumera
- Sorabji 5th (recently got it, don´t know much of it, but it seems very, very good and also quite approachable. But just discovered that it is from 1923 !)

I also have a really soft spot for Silvestrov´s very simple & cinematic "Metamusik" and "Postludium"

[not edward]

Finnissy, Piano Concertos 4 & 6

We can disqualify these as concerti for solo piano (in the tradition of Alkan); could probably re-add Gorecki as I believe it is acceptable to play it as a "Piano Concerto" (and it is 8 minutes of good clean fun).

Most likely to join the OP's list for me would be:

Schnittke for piano and strings (a dramatic repurposing of the Russian choral tradition into a highly adversarial concerto).
Radulescu (spectralism meets Brahms and finds a somewhat awkward understanding).

Other possibilities that haven't been mentioned as far as I know:

Martin's 2nd (not amongst his very best works, but highly enjoyable nonetheless).
Henze's 2nd (heavy going, but there's a lot of depth there).

[raduneo]

Some of my favourites include

- Nørgård;
- Messiaen "Des Canyons aux Etoiles",
- Carter "Interventions" & "Dialogues",
- Keuris (1980),
- Schnittke (1979),
- Takemitsu "Riverrun" (especially the BIS recording),
- Ruders (1994)
- Lutoslawski
- Shostakovich 2nd
- Barber
- Sandström (neo-Romantic)
- Matthias Hammerth (neo-Romantic)
- Felix Glonti "Wanderjahre" (1990; Kavtaradze-recording)
- Gubajdulina (BIS recording, by far)
- Sumera
- Sorabji 5th (recently got it, don´t know much of it, but it seems very, very good and also quite approachable. But just discovered that it is from 1923 !)

I also have a really soft spot for Silvestrov´s very simple & cinematic "Metamusik" and "Postludium"

I have the one by Gubaidulina. I  need to listen to it more though! Same goes for Takemitsu.

Canyons aux Etoiles is one of my top 5 favorite pieces of the 20th century. You are making me curious about the Sorabji!
I didn't know Carter's Dialogues and Interventions were that good. What are they like compared to his first Piano Concerto?

You got m

[raduneo]

We can disqualify these as concerti for solo piano (in the tradition of Alkan); could probably re-add Gorecki as I believe it is acceptable to play it as a "Piano Concerto" (and it is 8 minutes of good clean fun).

Most likely to join the OP's list for me would be:

Schnittke for piano and strings (a dramatic repurposing of the Russian choral tradition into a highly adversarial concerto).
Radulescu (spectralism meets Brahms and finds a somewhat awkward understanding).

Other possibilities that haven't been mentioned as far as I know:

Martin's 2nd (not amongst his very best works, but highly enjoyable nonetheless).
Henze's 2nd (heavy going, but there's a lot of depth there).

Radulescu you say? Hmmm he's Romanian, so I can't say no. (I have Romanian origins myself)

[DieNacht]

I believe it is acceptable to play it as a "Piano Concerto"

yes, it (=Gorecki) has been recorded like that also (by Lubimov, maybe).

There are many interesting recorded Polish 20th century piano concertos, including Baird, Szymanski, Kulenty, Bacewicz, Krauze, Szeligowski, Wislocki, Malawski, Lazon etc. I´ve got them (not Szymanski though), but except from Malawski, I don´t know them thoroughly. Many of them are on you-tube also.

[raduneo]

There are quite a few from leading composers. Some examples ..

Tippett, Piano Concerto
Messiaen, Oiseaux Exotiques, Réveil des oiseaux
Stockhausen, Kontra-punkte
Stravinsky, Movements
Carter, Interventions, Dialogues, Soundings
Nancarrow/Usher, Concerto for Pianola and Chamber Orchestra
Berio, Echoing Curves
Xenakis, Erikhthon, Synaphaï
Birtwistle, Antiphonies
Schnittke, Concerto for Piano & Strings
Glass, Piano Concertos 1 & 2
Lachenmann, Ausklang
Rihm, Sphere, La Musique Creuse Le Ciel, Sotto voce Notturno, Sotto voce 2 Capriccio
Finnissy, Piano Concertos 4 & 6
Eötvös, CAP-KO
Muller, Comic Sense
Gubaidulina, Introitus
Part, Lamentate
Dusapin, A quia
Furrer, Konzert für Klavier und Orchester
López, Concierto para piano y orquesta
Sciarrino, Recitativo oscuro

A few of these are a little before 1960 but worth mentioning.
Some of the others listed I have yet to hear but would like to.

How could I forget to add the Tippett? Great concerto (although I don't see major similarities with Beethoven's 4th Concerto).
I like A quia, although I am still unsure if the outer movements are as good as the slow (middle) movement.

[DieNacht]

didn't know Carter's Dialogues and Interventions were that good. What are they like compared to his first Piano Concerto?

I only know them from you.tube, but I find them more approachable somehow than the concerto (which I have in the Arte Nova recording). But perhaps it´s just me ....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga0NLZTKFeA

[Kontrapunctus]

- Sorabji 5th (recently got it, don´t know much of it, but it seems very, very good and also quite approachable. But just discovered that it is from 1923 !)

Can you please provide recording details? (Label, performers, etc.) I wasn't aware there were recordings of his concertos.

[Cato]

From 1965: Alexander Tcherepnin's Sixth Piano Concerto!

http://www.youtube.com/v/UuOwvoVRTh8

[springrite]

Carter, and possibly Salonen. Luto and Ligeti (also Barber) some ways behind.

[raduneo]

Carter, and possibly Salonen. Luto and Ligeti (also Barber) some ways behind.

Since you like the Salonen so much, I will (strongly) reccomend the Lindberg! Most of what Lindberg composed is a little too experimental in my opinion, and not very cohesive. When he's good though, he's REALLY good, such as his Piano Concerto! Its instrumentation is similar to Ravel's Concerto, and it's actually quite lyrical compared to Salonen's percussive rhythms. I said lyrical, I did NOT say easy! I find it takes considerably more time to get than the Salonen!!

[springrite]

Since you like the Salonen so much, I will (stringly) reccomend the Lindberg! Most of what Lindberg composed is a little too experimental in my opinion, and not very cohesive. When he's good though, he's REALLY good, such as his Piano Concerto! Its instrumentation is similar to Ravel's Concerto, and it's actually quite lyrical compared to Salonen's percussive rhythms. I said lyrical, I did NOT say easy! I find it takes considerably more time to get than the Salonen!!

I have listened to it a couple of time and liked it a lot. But I guess it deserves a lot more time than it did! I will do that!

[Luke]

The Ligeti and the Tippett are, to me, the works of the most major importance. Masterpieces, both, and the Ligeti is a summation of one set of his ideas and techniques, and thus a work of the greatest interest. Meanwhile, as an extreme Tippettophile, I have nothing but deep adoration for his concerto, too. The link to the Beethoven 4th which someone was searching for in vain is to be found, I think, simply in the work's pellucid qualities, its predominatn lyricism and depth of tone. But also, of course, it wasn't so much Beethoven's 4th which gave Tippett the impetus to compose his concerto; it was seeing Geiseking play the work. I think it is something of that tone that he was seeking here.

Outside this, I agree utterly with those who proposed the Radulescu. A strange but wonderful work and, like the Ligeti, proposing completely new paths down which to explore... A little nod, here, too, towards Hugh Wood's concerto, with its beautifully lucid argument, in which choices in compositional technique (a 12 tone first movement, a jazz-paraphrasing second, and a third which fuses the two very movingly) becomes the springboard for some highly effective alternations of the brittle and the tender. This concerto has one of the most exquisite slow movements in late 20th music - one which I can't imagine anyone not falling in love with.

[TheGSMoeller]

It doesn't count, but Górecki's Harpsichord Concerto is good stuff.

Yes it is! 

[some guy]

Peter Dickinson's piano concerto.

One of those pieces by a rather marginal figure, and one who's not done anything comparable, so easy for this piece to get lost through the cracks. (I found it on LP first, by a fluke. So I was on the lookout for it appearing on CD, too, which it did.)

It's a really spiffy piece and well worth a listen--one of my favorites,* anyway. If you like a lot of different things and pieces that sample/refer to a lot of different things, you might find this piece as enjoyable as I do. Plus there's the slow and inexorable crescendos that take up practically the whole piece (as well as the long decrescendo at the end) and that will strike one as either excruciating or terrifically exciting (or, as I do, as both). Plus the little surprise at the end, followed by the final surprise at the very end.

Roberto Gerhard's piano concerto. (He's another one with a splendid harpsichord concerto, too.) Gerhard's always struck me as one of those major composers who never quite seems to get as much love as he deserves. The piano concerto is a mature work, so like the harpsichord concerto and the numbered symphonies and those Zodiac chamber pieces.

Also, how well does Feldman's Piano and Orchestra fit into this category? It's ostensibly not a "concerto," but still....

*I should say "was." I haven't listened to it in several years. I wonder....

As I recall, it struck me much the same way as Berio's two piano concerto. Quite a slow über-tempo with all sorts of sonic fireworks flashing about over that glacial pace. But warmer and more jazzy (ragtimey) than Berio's also fine work.

[Mirror Image]

The Ligeti and the Tippett are, to me, the works of the most major importance. Masterpieces, both, and the Ligeti is a summation of one set of his ideas and techniques, and thus a work of the greatest interest. Meanwhile, as an extreme Tippettophile, I have nothing but deep adoration for his concerto, too. The link to the Beethoven 4th which someone was searching for in vain is to be found, I think, simply in the work's pellucid qualities, its predominatn lyricism and depth of tone. But also, of course, it wasn't so much Beethoven's 4th which gave Tippett the impetus to compose his concerto; it was seeing Geiseking play the work. I think it is something of that tone that he was seeking here.

I agree, Luke. The Tippett and Ligeti PCs are very fine works.

[Mirror Image]

I suppose my list of would look something like this (in no particular order):

Shostakovich: Piano Concerto No. 2
Rautavaara: Piano Concerto No. 3
Lindberg: Piano Concerto
Salonen: Piano Concerto
Tippett: Piano Concerto
Adams: Century Rolls (some may roll their eyes with this choice but I like it)
Ligeti: Piano Concerto
Barber: Piano Concerto

[snyprrr]

Xenakis Erikhthon, Synaphai, Kekrops My Top Picks, all 3 are super yummy!

Norgard-Ligeti-Lutoslawski-Salonen & Lindberg-Dusapin A Quia (Norgard & Dusapin good clanky/percussive)

Dalbavie (lots of good, percussive PCs here)

Foss (check it out!)

Halffter

Carter... yes, this one's Berlin ugly

Mennin (a huge American PC; Ogdon)

Sessions (Top5)!!! LOVE IT!