Learning about Music: What is a Concerto?

Learning About Music: What is a Concerto?

Since the Orchestra can't perform in-person concerts right now, we will be offering another free virtual concert this weekend! This concert will revisit the Orchestra's 2016 performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D featuring National Symphony violinist Joel Fuller. Join us on Saturday, August 8 at 7:30pm on Facebook Live or on our website. Music Director Jason Love will discuss the history of this piece and also chat with Joel Fuller before the performance. In the meantime, let's learn a little about the classical concerto.

The classical concerto is a piece of music written for a solo instrument, or small group of instruments, accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble during the classical period (approximately 1730 through 1820). Concertos were also written during other music periods as well. Beethoven's Violin Concerto is structured like most classical concertos — a three movement piece consisting of a slower movement in between two faster movements. The first movement is usually in "sonata form" and the last is often in "rondo" form. Rondo form means that the main theme (melody) keeps repeating, alternating with other themes (A B A C A D A). Listen to an example on Classics For Kids. As you listen to the Beethoven Violin Concerto, listen for the repeating theme during the 3rd movement. 

Concertos usually include a "cadenza" near the end of each movement. In fact, the Italian word cadenza is from the word "cadence," meaning the close of a musical section. During the cadenza the orchestra stops playing or sustains a single note or chord while the soloist performs a virtuosic passage relating to the music from the movement. The performer may make this up (improvise it) on the spot or it may be composed ahead of time by the composer. Listen to this short example of a cadenza on Classics For Kids. Then, listen to our concert to see if you can recognize the cadenza in each movement of the Beethoven concerto.

Beethoven's Violin Concerto was played for the first time in 1806 but it was not considered a success and was rarely performed for the next 38 years! In 1844, long after Beethoven had died, a 12-year-old violinist performed it with the orchestra of the London Philharmonic Society conducted by Felix Mendelssohn.  After that performance its popularity grew and Beethoven's Violin Concerto is now considered one of the most important concertos for violin.