The Piano Concerto

The fascinating world of the piano concerto – where virtuosos showcase their skills and composers have the freedom to experiment. Ever since Johann Sebastian Bach liberated keyboard instruments from having to provide a mere accompaniment, the piano concerto has become one of the best-loved genres for concert audiences around the world. Every significant composer of the Classical and Romantic era, many of whom were themselves virtuosos on the piano, has written a masterpiece for this genre, performing it themselves as a means of self-promotion and a welcome source of income. 

Since the 1990s, the piano concerto has been a permanent fixture in our Urtext programme. Especially in recent years, following the inclusion of important concertos by Bach, Saint-Saëns, Ravel and Gershwin in our catalogue, it is now high time to pay a fitting tribute to the piano concerto in 2024 – as the pinnacle for pianists. You can explore our selection of piano concertos here. Among them, you will find two wonderful facsimile editions: Antonín Dvořák’s piano concerto and a recent addition and in honour of his 150^th birthday, that of Arnold Schönberg. The orchestral material for many of these works has been published in cooperation with the publisher Breitkopf & Härtel.