The piano concerto may well be the most comprehensive of musical forms. It has everything one could want with the possible exception of the voice, and both Beethoven and Busoni included vocal parts in works for piano and orchestra. In such works, there is music for piano solo, piano in duet with individual orchestral instruments, in chamber-like ensembles with various other instruments, piano with string or full orchestral accompaniment, in raging battle against the orchestra, and thundering passages of glorious orchestral music.
Most of the great composers succumbed to the temptation to write at least one, and in the case of Mozart, twenty-seven. The glaring exceptions who were not essentially opera composers or itinerant violinists are Berlioz, Bruckner, Mahler, Sibelius and Nielsen. (If you think of other important examples, do let me know and I will be happy to add them to the list.)
My end and my beginning is the music for piano and orchestra as conceived by Brahms and Rachmaninov which I find to be the most perfect of the species, the music I would want to have with me were I to find myself stranded on a desert island. These two composers managed to create monuments of pianistic and orchestral glory, giving both piano and orchestra equality of importance, beauty, and power.
The links below will take you to pages in which you will find performances of music designed to ensnare the senses.
Liszt 1 in E flat Major Liszt 2 in A Major Liszt Hungarian Fantasy
Mendelssohn 1 in G minor Op 25 Mendelssohn 2 in D minor Op 40
Prokofiev 2 in G minor Op 16 Prokofiev 3 in C Major Op 26
Rachmaninov 1 in F# minor Op 1 Rachmaninov 2 in C minor Op 19 Rachmaninov 3 in D minor Op 30 Rachmaninov 4 in G minor Op 40 Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Op 43
And click on Concert Tickets to explore upcoming concerts and the availability of concert tickets in your area. If you live in Baltimore, for example, just type "classical concerts in Baltimore" in the search box and voila!
