Although a concerto is usually a piece of music for one or more solo instruments accompanied by a full orchestra, several composers have written works with the apparently contradictory title Concerto for Orchestra. This title is usually chosen to emphasise soloistic and virtuosic treatment of various individual instruments or sections in the orchestra, with emphasis on instruments changing during the piece.
For the distinction between the Concert...
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Although a concerto is usually a piece of music for one or more solo instruments accompanied by a full orchestra, several composers have written works with the apparently contradictory title Concerto for Orchestra. This title is usually chosen to emphasise soloistic and virtuosic treatment of various individual instruments or sections in the orchestra, with emphasis on instruments changing during the piece.
For the distinction between the Concerto for Orchestra and the Sinfonia Concertante genres (or: forms): see sinfonia concertante
The best known Concerto for Orchestra is the one by Béla Bartók (1943), although the title had been used several times before.
Goffredo Petrassi made the concerto for orchestra something of a speciality, writing eight of them since 1933. He finished the last one in 1972.
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