Unusual Concertos

I was thinking of compiling a list of "the best concertos for each instrument" and of course the Mozart Clarinet concerto sprang to mind, as did Bach's concerto for two violins (I think its in a minor), Vivaldi also would (I expect) be represented for some instrument; I recall a famous oboe concerto that slips my mind (lOL) then I had to venture on line and stumbled onto some concerto for Bass Drum (!) and decided who better to ask than this group: Name what you consider to be "THE" concerto for an instrument. Clarinet is taken, I think, but if you can upstage the Mozart, please add to the list for the licorice stick (that was slang for the clarinet back in my day.)

Not gonna touch the idea of “best” for violin or piano.
But for some of the less-concerto-ed instruments: Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote concertos for oboe, for tuba and for harmonica (the latter one for Larry Adler).
There is a concerto for tympani but don’t recall who wrote it. There is (I think) also a concerto for didgeridoo.
Candidates for “best” for some other instruments:
Viola: Berlioz
Cello: Elgar, Haydn
Trumpet: Haydn (and how about the second Brandenburg? And IIRC Shostakovich wrote a concerto for trumpet and piano)
Bassoon: John Williams

>2 haydninvienna: John Williams' tuba concerto is also quite good, and I like the harmonica concerto by Michael Spivakovsky. The didgeridoo concerto you're thinking of is probably Peter Sculthorpe's Earth Cry. Avner Dorman has written nice concertos for piccolo and for mandolin.

Lots of timpani concertos, especially in the last 40 years or so. There are good ones by Philip Glass (Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists) and Michael Dougherty (Raise the Roof).

I feel obligated to add Bach's Concerto for Four Harpsichords as among the best Harpsichord concerti. I will venture in the realm of the piano and mention both Mozart's Piano Concerto in D Minor No 20 and Beethoven's Piano Concerto No 3.

In the area of the double concerto I have to nominate Mozart's Flute and Harp, and Vivaldi's Concerto for two Trumpets.

Michael Haydn wrote a charming concerto for organ, but Handel also composed a bunch of organ concertos, some to be performed during the intermissions of his oratorios.

Of those, I nominate the one (No. 15?) nicknamed 'The Cuckoo and the Nightingale'.

Piano: The Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor by Beethoven

There are numerous concertos for double bass from among which I'll pick Koussevitzky Op. 3.

Thanks for the input! I was surprised by the nomination of the Mozart flute/harp concerto--probably because I got SICK of it when I was learning the flute, but I guess its OK now (LoL) probably as well known as the clarinet concerto, or at least it seems to get lots of air play these days.

I have a soft spot for lesser known works, like (for example) tuba concertos, tympani concertos, and big double reeds (bassoons and contrabassoons.) I actually played English Horn for a bit ... but only honked a bassoon once or twice. For some reason it sounds like a goose to me...or maybe it was a moose.

I see that there seems to be quite a bit of works for the "tin whistle" which I have never played. There is another "wind instrument" I would expect to have some works, but I do not know the formal name of the instrument. Us Hillbillies just called it a "sweet pertater" because it was said that one could carve the instrument out of a Yam (what we called "sweet potatoes" up in them thar hills.) Ocarina, maybe?

>9 clammer: Yes, the ocarina is the “sweet potato.”. It pops up occasionally in orchestral music; Penderecki calls for a dozen of them (to be played by the wind section) in THE DREAM OF JACOB, and for 50 (played by the chorus) in his 8th symphony. Don’t know of any concertos for it, though.

The tin whistle/penny whistle is like a recorder, but made of metal. It’s the flute-y sound you hear in so much traditional Irish music, or at the beginning of “My Heart Will Go On.”

Thank you! Very interesting!

And now that I have stumbled upon the beautiful

Concerto for Cat and Chamber Orchestra

https://piecaitis.com/catcerto.html

I think my quest is complete. Cheers!

>11 clammer:

Yes, I think we're done here. I don't know how one could top that!

>12 lilithcat:

True; and yet none of us mentioned P. D. Q. Bach!

>13 librorumamans: Or the Hoffnung Festivals, the first of which featured " A Grand, Grand Overture" (OK, not a concerto) for vacuum cleaner and orchestra, by Malcolm Arnold.

And then there's the Flanders & Swann vocal version of Mozart's Horn Concerto in E Flat Major: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjA6bA1qtfQ

>15 lilithcat:

Ah, yes! I saw them live once as a child. I recall thinking that my father might die from laughter during the performance; at points, mass asphyxiation seemed a real possibility.

I haven't yet listened to it, but I stumbled across another concerto that certainly fits the topic: Morton Gould's 1952 concerto for tap dancer and orchestra.

Mozart - Adagio and Rondo for Glass Harmonica, K 617

Albrechtsberger: Concerto in E major for Jew's Harp, Mandora & Orchestra

Beethoven rarities for mandolin and piano/violin

Wet Balloon Concert with Judy Dunnaway (excerpts lower on the page)

>18 LolaWalser:

Somewhere I have an LP of Mozart's music for glass harmonica. Rather haunting.

How about Reinhold Glière's Concerto for Coloratura soprano and Orchestra?

How about Reinhold Glière's Concerto for Coloratura Soprano and Orchestra?

>6 Tess_W: The first movement has always felt hauntingly beautiful