The Top Three Composers Who Wrote Crap Concertos

I've always been fascinated with the concerto. The concerto is to me the ultimate musical genre, as it blends elements of solo, chamber and full orchestra writing.

The greatest composer of the concerto is of course Mendelssohn, who was able to write idiomatically for not only the piano, but the violin as well. His most well-known work, the Violin Concerto op. 64, isn't his finest though, as it suffers from over-orchestration and balance problems. Instead, his two piano concertos are exciting to play and listen to, and are deservedly mainstays of the concerto repertoire.

Best Pick: Piano Concerto no. 1 in G minor, op 25

...

...

And now for the top three composers who wrote the worst concertos:

#3: Schumann

Schumann's Piano Concerto is a favourite with audiences and performers today, but his Cello Concerto is one of the most unidiomatic cello concertos in the repertoire, and his Violin Concerto, written after he went mad, is so boring that it is out of the standard repertoire, and rightly so. Some violinists don't even know Schumann wrote a Violin Concerto. Incidentally, it was written around the same time as the Brahms Violin Concerto and dedicated to the same person, Joachim, who promoted the Brahms concerto and suppressed the Schumann. Shocking.

Best Pick: Piano Concerto in A minor op 54

#2: Tchaikovsky

Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto earns notoriety for the worst mishandling of a beautiful main theme in the history of music. The soaring first theme never reappears during the twenty or so minutes of the first movement, despite being the most memorable one. And whatever happened to his Second? Out of the repertoire, it seems, for being not exactly very well-written, or interesting, as near the end of the first movement there is a five-minute solo cadenza for the piano. Zzz. His Violin Concerto, though structurally sound and quite well-written, contains some truly awful solo writing, and has been described as 'the violin is no longer played, it is being beaten black and blue...'

Best Pick: Variations on a Rococo Theme op. 33

...

...

...

#1: Mozart

Mozart was a musical genius who wrote masterpieces in every genre except the piano concerto. Vast majority of them have a nice orchestral opening and show great potential, but when the piano comes in, the momentum stops dead in its tracks and it suddenly becomes tedious.

There is a reason why Mozart piano concertos are frequently played, but no one ever plays them for major competitions (and wins). There is also a reason why no one stays awake during a Mozart piano concerto. Even the orchestra. Come to think of it, the soloist is probably the only one who can stay awake.

That being said, some of Mozart's instrumental concertos are hot stuff, but then again they are of mixed quality: his Oboe Concerto K. 314 was transcribed (by his own hand) into the Flute Concerto K. 314a to fulfil a commission, and he ended up not being paid for it because it was based off an existing work.

Best Pick: Violin Concerto no. 3 in G major, K. 216