American composer William Bolcom has written a new piano concerto for Igor Levit and it is on YouTube:
It is remarkable how enduring the concerto genre remains. The basic idea of the dialogue and contrast between a solo instrument and an orchestra has captured the imagination of composers and the interest of audiences for the last three hundred years. I don't think any other musical form has had that consistent a success.
2 comments:
Aside from concertos, I'd say opera is about the only secular musical genre to have persisted longer. One could say the mass, but that is because liturgy itself is the heart of that form, and that is more ritualized worship wrapped in music.
Good call, Will. Yes, opera and the Catholic mass are also forms that have endured over centuries.
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