25 piano concertos from Bach to the present day

It was Johann Sebastian Bach who elevated the harpsichord from its accompanying role in the basso continuo to a more prominent one. His Harpsichord Concerto No. 1, presented here by Sir András Schiff on the modern grand piano, is modelled formally on the established genre of the violin concerto. The invention of the string hammer action opened up completely new possibilities: whereas the strings of the harpsichord were plucked by quills, the new mechanism now struck them with small hammers. This not only made the hammer action piano louder, it also allowed for dynamic variation – hence its name, pianoforte.

This inspired Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to compose around 30 piano concertos, in which he himself delighted audiences as the soloist – in our playlist, this role is taken on by Daniel Barenboim, Maria João Pires, Leif Ove Andsnes and Murray Perahia. The piano quickly became the most popular instrument among the middle classes – and by 1800, there was a keyboard instrument in almost every drawing room. At the same time, a public concert scene emerged, providing a stage throughout Europe for composing virtuosos such as Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt and Clara Schumann. After Mozart and Beethoven pioneered the genre, it experienced a second great flowering during the Romantic period. Among the most popular works from this period are the sole concertos for the instrument by Robert Schumann (here with Martha Argerich) and Edvard Grieg (with Evgeny Kissin), as well as Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto (with Alexis Weissenberg and Herbert von Karajan).

In our playlist, Daniil Trifonov takes us from late Romanticism to Modernism with two works: Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto, which Schoenberg followed up with his own concerto some 60 years later; and Scriabin’s sole contribution to the genre, which follows in the tradition of composers such as Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. The concertos by Gershwin and Ravel, with their incorporation of jazz music, form a bridge between Europe and America. Sunwook Kim and Víkingur Ólafsson conclude this journey through time with two highly virtuosic contemporary piano concertos by Unsuk Chin and John Adams.