A concerto is an instrumental work in which a single instrumentalist or a small group of instrumentalists contrasts with a large orchestral ensemble. In contrast to the 1600s, when there was a genre of sacred music known as chorale concertos, this meaning has been applied consistently since the 1700s. Most often, it refers to a work in three movements, with the first and last being fast and the middle being slow, for one soloist and orchestra, multiple soloists and orchestra in a special version called the concerto grosso, or undivided groups in an orchestra.
The six concerti a Quattro of Giuseppe Torelli, published in 1692, were the first concerti to be printed. Torelli’s concerti musicali a quattro op. 6, in which he explains the meaning of the word solo, which is used for decorative passages to be played a single instrument, is more important. As a result, he is occasionally credited with inventing the concerto form.
There were two types of concertos: Roman and north Italian. The Rome orchestra was built around a core group of players known as the concertino, which consisted of the musicians needed for a trio sonata, and a larger group known as the concerto grosso or ripieno. The Roman concerto was shaped around four separate violin parts, with developments in the sonata tradition. Concertos Arcangelo Corelli were written in this style.
The concerto a cinque is composed of a principal violin, two additional violins, a viola, and a cello, which may be doubled a continuo or have a separate continuo part in northern Italy. With his op. 2 and Concerti a cinque op. 5, Tomas Albinoni of Venice played a significant role in the development of this style of concerto.
Antonio Vivaldi, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were among the composers who contributed to the concerto’s development. Vivaldi composed approximately 500 concerti, the most famous of which are the solo violin concertos known as Le Quattro stagioni — The Four Seasons in English: La primavera, L’estate, L’autunno, and — Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter, which are used as program music.
The six Brandenburg Concertos, originally titled Six Concerts Avec plusieurs instruments and completed in 1721, are Bach’s most well-known concerti. Bach uses a variety of solo instruments, including the piccolo violin, horn, oboe, bassoon, trumpet, recorder, harpsichord, and flute.
Mozart’s concertos for bassoon, oboe, flute, horn, and piano, as well as his Clarinet Concerto in A Major, are well-known. Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Antonin Dvorak, Edward Elgar, Josef Haydn, Felix Mendelssohn, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky, and Georg Telemann are among the most famous concerto composers.