Concertos for two pianos and orchestra

[Gauk]

The two-piano concerto is evidently not a form used very much in the Romantic period - one imagines for the fairly obvious reason that the piano virtuoso of the period was not going to want to share the on-stage glory. Obvious examples are limited to Mendelssohn and Bruch. Then it is on to the 20th C.

Any obscure examples that can be pointed out?

[eschiss1]

Well, there's the Thieriot Op.77 concerto... by the way, you say "on to the 20th c". The Bruch concerto is from the 20th century- written ca.1912. I'm not positive whether the Thieriot was (c) 1893 or 1903 frankly but it was before the Bruch

[thalbergmad]

Kalkbrenner and Dussek are the first ones that come to mind. I suspect there are more, but not many.

The Field 5 used to require 2 pianos in one of the movements, but the power of the modern instrument means this is no longer a requirement.

As you say, the 20th Century are littered with two piano concertos and a vast number from Dutch composers, for some reason which is beyond me.

Thal

[eschiss1]

Thanks- also Kalkbrenner op.125 pub.1833, thanks for the reminder, and Dussek Op.63/Craw 206 (1805-6, maybe a little early for this.)
Maybe time to do a bit of clever HMB searching, though... hrm.

[minacciosa]

There are actually many more of these than is generally known. Quincy Porter's Concerto Concertante won the Pulitzer Prize in 1954.

[eschiss1]

I've heard the Porter, there've been good recordings. The question was specifically about the period 1830-1900 or so (so even the Bruch wasn't admissible, since it was composed in 1912.)

[Gauk]

The dangers of mentally pigeon-holing composers by centuries when they overlapped ...

[eschiss1]

Oh, no doubt. I'm rather a fan of Quincy Porter's though I doubt much of his music would be considered Romantic (maybe late-Liszt Romantic, since late-Liszt is considered Romantic, right? Of course right, by our definition... ok, not going there-but have to, eventually, because it's just plain*mrph* *gags self*) by the standards of this forum - not a sentence for too much to be read into; his 3rd string quartet, like Prokofiev's 1st, is powerfully elegiac, as I recall from the LP (there have also been at least 3 CD recordings, two of them parts of complete sets), a lot of his music on the warmer, less Stravinskian (phew!!) side of "neo-Classical" (no, I am not much fond of Stravinsky, with some exceptions)- then getting harsher harmonically as I recall, though always expressive, toward the end of his career. A student of Ernest Bloch and a friend of Roger Sessions (though not like the latter's middle or later work in sound.)

[JollyRoger]

The Concerto for two Pianos by Ralph Vaughn Willams is simply stunning.
http://www.allmusic.com/composition/concerto-for-2-pianos-amp-orchestra-in-c-major-revised-version-of-piano-concerto-mc0002357005

[Alan Howe]

...but it's not really for this forum.

[Gareth Vaughan]

Frank Tapp wrote a Prelude and Fugue for two pianos and strings which I think dates from the 1890s. I might be wrong. I'll check.

[eschiss1]

According to piano-concertos.org there's also a movement for 2 pianos and orchestra by Sterndale Bennett and a Grand Allegro by Brzowski. (F.J. Frohlich didn't but did write one for piano duet and orchestra.) Gyula Mayor wrote one (2pf/orch) too, from possibly ca.1888?...

(To my surprise, Emanuel Moor, who wrote a harp concerto, several piano, and violin, and cello, concertos, a piano and violin and orchestra concerto, and a triple concerto- did not write one of these... did Röntgen, I wonder?) (There's also Joszef Wieniawski's Fantasia, fwiw.)

[Revilod]

I cannot resist pointing out a fascinating fact about Dussek's  Double Piano Concerto. He completed it in 1806 while working for Prince Louis Ferdinand of Prussia. They were travelling from battlefield to battlefield in the Prussian fight against Napoleon. The prince was himself a fine pianist and composer (Beethoven dedicated his Third Piano Concerto to him) and, on 9th October, he and Dussek gave the first performance, accompanied by string quartet, at the home of Prince Schwartzburg in Rudolstadt. Astonishingly, the very next day, the prince, at the head of his troops, was killed in the Battle of Saalfeld. (Moral: Battle plans before piano practice!)

[eschiss1]

Something of that history is recounted in the notes to the one recording (that I know of) of Dussek's 3 string quartets Op.60, which were also performed in that pre-battle concert, I believe. I'd gotten the impression somehow that they were actually played in Saalfeld, though, not in Rudolstadt. I misread *sigh* Thanks for the correction!

[giles.enders]

At the risk of being accused of another 'laundry list' here are the ones that I know of from composers born before 1880.  This list could be doubled if it included 1 piano 4 hands. I have a list of composers in both categories, born up to 1921 which I would be happy to send as an attachment with an email if anyone is interested.

Umlauf, Ignaz  1746-1796  concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra
Mozart, Wolfgang  1765-1791  concerto for 3 pianos and orchestra, concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra  1776/79
Dussek, Jan  1760-1812  concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra in B flat major  1805
Kalkbrenner, Friedrich  1785-1849  concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra
Brzowsky, Joseph  1803-1888  Grand allegro for 2 pianos and orchestra  1846
Mendelssohn, Felix  1809-1847  two concertos for 2 pianos and orchestra
Bennett, Willian Sterndale  1816-1875  1 movement of concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra 1835
Dutsch, Otto  1823-1863  Sonata for 2 pianos and orchestra
Wieniawski, Josef  1837-1912  Fantasia for 2 pianos and orchestra 
Bruch, Max  1838-1920 concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra in A flat
Mayr(Major) Jacob  1858-1925  concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra  1888
Robyn, Alfred  1860-1935  concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra in C minor  1900
Hutcheson, Ernest  1871-1951  concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra 1933
Hill, Edward  1872-1960  Scherzo for 2 pianos and orchestra1924
Pferdemonges, Maria  1872-19xx  concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra
Vaughan-Williams Ralph  1872-1958  concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra  in C major  1946
Heintz, Gustav  1891-1946  concerto for 2 pianos and orchestra  1933