Solo Concertos in One Movement

[Peter1953]

I'm wondering which unsung composer was the first who wrote a solo concerto in one movement. Of course (or not?) a concerto in several tempi, but running into the next without a break. And why should the composer have done so? Does the concerto sound more compact? Is it original? If memory serves I think the sung composer was one of the Bach sons. Was the unsung composer just a follower?
Which concerto belongs to your favourites?

[JimL]

It's hard to determine what constitutes a "single movement", just as it's hard to determine what constitutes a "concerto".  Several concertante works called concerto have a first movement that consists of nothing more than a concerto "double exposition" (see that thread) which moves to another key, cadences, and has a tutti that would normally lead to a development and reprise but instead links to a slow movement.  This was a particularly favorite 19th Century "compact concerto" format.  The slow movement, however, would usually have a discrete cadence, and would be followed by a fully-developed rondo or sonata-rondo.  So, whether you could consider this to be a single movement is subject to doubt.  Also, with the profusion of titles for concertante works (e.g. "Konzertstück/Morceau de Concert, Concertino, Fantasie" etc.) it is difficult to categorize them all as concertos, as some would have it done.  Certainly there are some full-fledged concertos that were called something else (Schumann's Konzertstück for 4 horns comes to mind) but there are many works called "Concertino" that follow more-or-less the same concerto format as I mentioned above, as well as variants (e.g. slow introduction followed by an allegro, etc.)

[TerraEpon]

I'm sure it's far from the earliest, but both of Laypunov's piano concerti are single movements, or at least least played without pause (and take up a single track on the Naxos recording).

[Gauk]

Surely the question is who first wrote a single-movement concerto? Whoever did was the innovator, whoever followed, followed, whatever their "sungedness". The other question is when is a single-movement concerto truly a single-movement form, and when is it just three or four movements played without a break? And that is not always a straightforward question.

[eschiss1]

well, it's not an either/or, I suppose, if any concertos use the Liszt/Schoenberg 4-and-1 form (in which every movement of a several-movement (in one) form also has a function (first movement/exposition , slow movement/intermezzo-development part 1, scherzo/development part 2, finale/recapitulation and coda)  within a single-movement form - as with Liszt's B minor sonata and Schoenberg's 1st Chamber Symphony (arguably Schmidt's 4th symphony perhaps to some extent- but any concertos?) (inner movements reversed w/the Schoenberg)).

[FBerwald]

Weber's Konzertstück in F minor, Op. 79 is, I believe, what started it all.

[eschiss1]

1815-1821? Surely not as late as that. (Then again, I can't think of any "concertos" written that early with only one movement- and even the Weber is a concertstück, not a concerto - by Library association tagging rules, not a concerto, rather a piece in concerted style or something along those lines- and it's not that long ago that the difference would have been understood, and as something other than pedantry, occasionally anyway!... the Liszt first concerto isn't the earliest example, as it was finished 1849, 17 years after his colleague Alkan's 2 concertos da camera which at least more or less qualify iirc... or Mendelssohn's G minor concerto (as we're allowing sung works for a fair competition) which was completed a year before (1831) those, I think... (or - no, that's effectively a three-in-one work, so it does qualify for one of the two categories, as there is no real pause.  Beethoven 4 and 5 don't qualify as in each case there's a pause between movements 1 and 2 (ah well, he says, after listening to an -especially- beautiful no.4...))

[FBerwald]

Weber's Konzertstück started out as his concerto No. 3. It should be noted that a 3 or 4 movement concerto with the movements played "attacca" should not be considered a single movement concerto rather, a multi movement concerto played without any pauses between movements.  Alkan's Concerto da camera are all in 3 movements played attaca. Liszt's concertos are the 1st one's that come to my mind when I think of single movement concertos...  Maybe I am wrong.

[Gauk]

A much later piece to be sure, but I feel mention should be made of Rimsky-Korsakov's piano concerto as a good example of an integrated one-movement form. A sadly neglected work, considered the best 19th C Russian piano concerto by Jeremy Norris.

[eschiss1]

Hrm. Thought the Liszt first concerto was also in several movements played together, even though they're related - a one-movement sonata form but also four short movements (not necessarily the dual function of the B minor sonata, but dual interpretation.)