Concerto is a composition for a solo instrument and orchestra, structured around the dialogue and contest between them.
The concerto crystallised in the late 17th century in the Italian Baroque, particularly in the works of Arcangelo Corelli, Antonio Vivaldi, and George Frideric Handel. Vivaldi alone composed over 500 concertos, including 'The Four Seasons' (1725), which remain the most-recorded works of the Baroque era. The Classical concerto, perfected by Mozart in his 27 piano concertos, established the dialogue between soloist and orchestra as a kind of conversation between an individual voice and a community. Beethoven's five piano concertos and one violin concerto, Brahms's two piano concertos and violin concerto, Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto, and Rachmaninoff's second and third piano concertos defined the Romantic concerto as a vehicle for both technical display and emotional revelation. The 20th century brought Bartók, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Ligeti — composers who rethought the soloist-orchestra relationship without abandoning the form's essential drama.