Concerto is a musical genre composed originally for vocal music in the late 16th century in Europe. From the end of the 17th century, it becomes mostly instrumental.

The term “concerto” was initially used to denote works that involved voices and instruments with independent parts—as opposed to the Renaissance common practice in which instruments that accompanied vocalists doubled only the voice parts.

Due to my ignorance and lack of knowledge, I don’t pretend this post covers all the important concertos in the history of music. It covers just concertos I like in chronological order. I would be happy if some readers discover here pieces of music they also find interesting.

Arcangelo Corelli was the first composer that greatly influenced how the concerto genre developed. His pieces are among the first that stood the test of time. I choose “La Follia,” composed in 1700 from his concertos.

Antonio Vivaldi is a better-known composer, mostly for his ”The Four Seasons” concertos. Here I will mention two other compositions I like. Vivaldi composed his own “Follia” in 1705, and you can hear the influence of Correli in that piece. Later in 1713, he wrote “La Stravaganza”, another composition for violins.

While we are in the 18th century with this subjective review, Johann Sebastian Bach’s concertos make a strong impression even today. First, his Brandenburg concertos, composed in 1721, have a fascinating history, being lost until found and published in 1850. This way, they could not influence the development of this music genre. I like the Brandenburg concertos no. 3, 4, and 5. Around 1730 Bach composed the “Concerto for Two Violins in D minor,” where you can notice the influences from Correlli and Vivaldi.

The next great composer of concertos is Mozart. His talent is beyond anyone else. While living only 35 years, he composed a lot of masterpieces. Mozart left for humanity concertos for many instruments ( piano, violin, brass, horn, flute, oboe, etc.). Of his works, I like most “Piano Concerto no 21” ( one of the 27 he composed) from 1785.

Moving to the 19th century, my next preferred composer was Beethoven. I like his symphonies and sonatas. Among his concertos, I prefer “Piano Concerto no 5” (the Emperor Concerto) from 1809.

Things became more complex in the 19th century. It was a time with many talented composers. My preference here goes towards Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s compositions. In 1875 he wrote the “Piano Concerto No. 1”, first played the same year in Boston. The same composer wrote “Violin Concerto in D Major”, his only violin concerto, in 1878. The violin concerto is featured in the movie “Le Concert” by Radu Mihaileanu.

At the beginning of the 20th century, in 1901, Sergei Rachmaninoff composed “Piano Concerto No.2 in C minor”. I find a connection here with the Piano Concerto No.1 by Tchaikovsky. That should not be a surprise, as the former composer influenced Rachmaninoff.

As we get closer to the present day, the length of concertos diminishes. The last concertos mentioned here are all under 10 minutes.

My list of concertos for the last century includes a composition less famous by a Romanian author Nicolae Kirculescu. It is called “The musical moment” and dates from 1950. The “moment” is well known in my country as it was the generic music for a famous tv show in the last 60 years.

In 1967 for the movie “Les Demoiselles the Rochefort”, Michel Legrand wrote a short concerto I am also adding here.

As mentioned, in the beginning, in the 16th century, concertos were vocal. I chose to end my short list with a concerto for one voice by Saint Preux from 1967, ”Concerto pour une voix”.

The best way to share these compositions is by creating a playlist on youtube that you can find here.

By no means I am saying these are the best compositions, it is just music I like. I have no studies in music, I only read about music history. Maybe you’ll find something that you also like here.