Concerto for Orchestra

Although a concerto is usually a piece of music for one or more solo instruments pitted against an 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 the instruments of the orchestra.

The best known Concerto for Orchestra is the one by Béla Bartók (1943), although the title had been used several times before.

Concertos for Orchestra (in chronological order)

• Concerto for Orchestra[?], Opus 38 by Paul Hindemith (1925)
• Concerto for Orchestra[?] by Walter Piston[?] (1933), which is based in part on Hindemith's work
• Concerto for Orchestra[?] by Zoltán Kodály (1939)
• Concerto for Orchestra by Béla Bartók (1943)
• Concerto for Orchestra[?] by Witold Lutoslawski[?] (1950-54)
• Concerto for Orchestra[?] by Michael Tippett (1962-63)
• Concerto for Orchestra[?] by Roberto Gerhard[?] (1965)
• Concerto for Orchestra[?] by Elliott Carter (1969)
• Concerto for Orchestra[?] by Roger Sessions[?] (1979-81), which won him the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1982

Goffredo Petrassi[?] made the concerto for orchestra something of a speciality, writing eight of them since the 1930s.