| Oboe Concerto | |
|---|---|
| by Vincenzo Bellini | |
 Portrait of Bellini from an unknown date | |
| Key | E-flat major |
| Period | Romantic music |
| Composed | 1823 |
| Scoring |
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The Oboe Concerto in E-flat major is an oboe concerto by Vincenzo Bellini, most likely composed in 1823. [1] Bellini's only surviving concerto, the piece is also an important part of his limited instrumental output. [2] Performances typically last between seven and eight minutes. [3] [4]
In 1819, at the age of eighteen, Bellini received a scholarship to the Conservatorio di San Sebastiano in Naples. He composed the Oboe Concerto during his studies. [5] Gramophone called the piece "a product of his youth". [6] Some other works composed by Bellini during the period included sacred music and fifteen symphonies (six of which are lost). In addition, fragments exist for two other concertos for woodwind instruments composed around the time: a bassoon concerto in G major that remains incomplete and a draft for a flute concerto in A major. [2] [3]
The work is scored for solo oboe and an orchestra consisting of two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two French horns, and strings. It is in one movement with three distinct sections: [2]
The piece is a concerto "all'italiana", a relatively new form in Bellini's time, which consists of an introduction, a slow section, and an Allegro. [2] The first section, marked Risoluto allegro, is only nine bars long and in the key of G major. It does not develop any melodic material in the rest of the piece, and it consists of a chord progression that makes heavy use of chromatic intervals. [2] Naxos Records referred to it as "the shortest of dramatic introductions". [1] Charles-David Lehrer opined that the concerto "deleted the first movement structure", in contrast to previous concerti for the oboe. [7] [8] Lehrer also stated that most pieces without an extensive first movement were labeled as concertinos. [9]
The second section, Larghetto Cantabile, marks the first entrance of the oboe and transitions to E-flat major, a major third down from the previous key of G major. In this section, the oboe soloist has several short cadenzas, expressive melodies, and fermata notes. The section can be divided into three subsections. [2] Hyperion Records called the oboe part in the section "aria-like", stating that it was typical of the bel canto style that was to influence Frédéric Chopin. [3]
The third and final section, a polonaise marked Allegro, is the largest section of the piece and changes the time signature to 3/4. [2] The section shows a greater amount of interaction between the solo and orchestral parts, as there is frequent imitation and trading off of the main theme. [2] One compiler and publisher of Bellini's music called the section a rondo in the structure "ABACABX"; he also wrote that "the orchestra connects the different episodes by short riffs […] and replies once the main theme." [10] Lehrer noted this third section as part of the common trend towards polonaises in rondo format as final movements of Romantic oboe concerti, listing it with works by Carl Maria von Weber, Stanislas Verroust, and Georges Guilhaud. [9]
The concerto has often been noted for its operatic qualities and the usage of bel canto themes in the solo oboe part. Valeria Lucentini, in an introduction to an edition of the piece, wrote, "Bellini devolves the lively and intense expressiveness of vocal music to the cantabile. As a result, Bellini places particular emphasis on the solo instrument, in effect giving it the same attention as the human voice." [2] She also stated that this characteristic was possibly influenced by some of the wordless songs composed by Bellini's teacher, Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli. [2]
Program notes for a United States Military Academy concert wrote that "The lyrical writing in the concerto is so indicative of Bellini's style that one could easily believe it to belong to one of Bellini's operas, and yet the work is still thoroughly idiomatic to the oboe." [5] Hyperion Records opined that "Bellini's juxtaposition of lyrical and more rigorous passages gives the little work an expertly managed inner balance." [3] Gramophone referred to the concerto as one that "extends the past rather than smooths the passage to the twentieth-century revival of the form," contrasting it with Domenico Cimarosa's constructed oboe concerto by Arthur Benjamin as an example of a 20th-century 'revival' of a work that was not originally made. [6]
The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61, was written by Ludwig van Beethoven in 1806. Its first performance by Franz Clement was unsuccessful and for some decades the work languished in obscurity, until revived in 1844 by the then 12-year-old violinist Joseph Joachim with the orchestra of the London Philharmonic Society conducted by Felix Mendelssohn. Joachim would later claim it to be the "greatest" German violin concerto. Since then it has become one of the best-known and regularly performed violin concertos.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622, was completed in October 1791 for the clarinettist Anton Stadler. It consists of three movements, in a fast–slow–fast succession.
The Bassoon Concerto in B-flat major, K. 191/186e, is a bassoon concerto written in 1774 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It is the most often performed and studied piece in the entire bassoon repertory. Nearly all professional bassoonists will perform the piece at some stage in their career, and it is probably the most commonly requested piece in orchestral auditions – it is usually requested that the player perform excerpts from the concerto's first two movements in every audition.
The Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11, is a piano concerto written by Frédéric Chopin in 1830, when he was twenty years old. It was first performed on 12 October of that year, at the Teatr Narodowy in Warsaw, Poland, with the composer as soloist, during one of his "farewell" concerts before leaving Poland.
The Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, K. 216, was composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Salzburg in 1775 when he was 19 years old. In a letter to his father, Mozart called it the "Straßburg-Concert". Researchers believe this epithet comes from the motive in the third movement's Allegretto in the central section, a local dance that already had appeared as a musette-imitating tune in a symphony by Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf.
The Piano Concerto No. 4 in C minor, Op. 44 was composed by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1875. It was premièred on October 31, 1875, at the Théâtre du Châtelet of Paris, with the composer as the soloist. The concerto is dedicated to Anton Door, a professor of piano at the Vienna Conservatory.
The Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21, is a piano concerto composed by Frédéric Chopin in fall 1829. Chopin composed the piece before he had finished his formal education, at around 20 years of age. It was first performed on 17 March 1830, in Warsaw, Poland, with the composer as soloist. It was the second of his piano concertos to be published, and so was designated as "No. 2", even though it was written first.
The Cello Concerto No. 1 in C major, Hob. VIIb/1, by Joseph Haydn was composed around 1761-65 for longtime friend Joseph Franz Weigl, then the principal cellist of Prince Nicolaus's Esterházy Orchestra.
Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15, was written in 1795, then revised in 1800. It was possibly first performed by Beethoven at his first public concert in Vienna on 29 March 1795. It was first published in 1801 in Vienna with dedication to his pupil Princess Anna Louise Barbara Odescalchi, known to her friends as "Babette".
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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Horn Concerto No. 3 in E-flat major, K. 447, was completed between 1784 and 1787, during the Vienna Period.
An organ concerto is an orchestral piece of music in which a pipe organ soloist is accompanied by an an orchestra, although some works exist with the name "concerto" which are for organ alone.
Ludwig van Beethoven's Rondo for Piano and Orchestra in B-flat major, WoO 6 was composed in 1793 and originally intended as the final movement for his second piano concerto. Hans-Werner Küthen states this was probably the finale for the first and second versions of the second piano concerto, being replaced by the final version of the rondo in 1795. He also notes that the most likely inspiration for the insertion of an andante section into the rondo is the concluding rondo of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 22.
The Konzertstück in F minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 79, J. 282, was written by Carl Maria von Weber. He started work on it in 1815, and completed it on the morning of the premiere of his opera Der Freischütz, 18 June 1821. He premiered it a week later, on 25 June, at his farewell Berlin concert.
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The Musette, or rather chaconne, in this Concerto, was always in favour with the composer himself, as well as the public; for I well remember that HANDEL frequently introduced it between the parts of his Oratorios, both before and after publication. Indeed no instrumental composition that I have ever heard during the long favour of this, seemed to me more grateful and pleasing, particularly, in subject.
The Concerti grossi, Op. 3, HWV 312–317, are six concerti grossi by George Frideric Handel compiled into a set and published by John Walsh in 1734. Musicologists now agree that Handel had no initial knowledge of the publishing. Instead, Walsh, seeking to take advantage of the commercial success of Corelli's Concerti grossi, Op. 6, simply combined several of Handel's already existing works and grouped them into six "concertos".
The Flute Concerto in D major, Op. 283, is a composition for solo flute and orchestra by the composer Carl Reinecke. The work was composed in 1908 and was Reinecke's last concerto before his death. It was first performed on March 15, 1909 in Leipzig by the flutist Maximilian Schwedler, to whom the piece is dedicated.
The Piano Concerto No. 8 in A-flat major, Op. 151 "Gruss an den Rhein", by Ferdinand Ries was composed around 1826 and published in 1829 by Simrock. While still showing the structural influence of Beethoven's piano concertos, the writing for the piano is more akin to that of later composers such as Chopin, Mendelssohn & Schumann.
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