Concerto means battle: soloist versus the crowd
From Latin concertare—to contend—the Italian concerto began as vocal music with independent instruments (title print 1587). By the late Baroque it meant soloist against orchestra, usually fast–slow–fast, a duel still packing concert halls from Vivaldi to Philip Glass.
Seventeenth-century sacred "concertos" for voices and orchestra—Bach still used the word for works we call cantatas—treated instruments as partners, not mere doublings of singers. Arcangelo Corelli's concerto grosso set a concertino, often two violins, cello, and continuo, against the ripieno; Bach's Fifth Brandenburg features flute, violin, and harpsichord as the small group. Italians such as Vivaldi then flooded Europe with solo violin concertos and essays for cello, winds, and multiple soloists competing for attention.
Handel's organ concertos and Bach's harpsichord concertos pioneered keyboard showpieces before the piano dominated Classical writing. Mozart produced twenty-seven piano concertos, the last seventeen especially prized, five violin concertos mostly in 1775, and wind jewels including the clarinet concerto; Haydn's trumpet concerto endures while his double-bass concerto burned at Eszterháza in 1779. Beethoven's lone violin concerto waited until Joseph Joachim's 27 May 1844 performance to be hailed a masterpiece; his five piano concertos and Triple Concerto widened the field further.
Romantic display stretched timings from Baroque roughly ten minutes toward half-hour-plus Beethoven spans. The twentieth century restored neglected soloists—clarinet, viola, horn—and invented the solo-less concerto for orchestra, as in Bartók. Later came balalaika, harmonica, accordion, even Deep Purple's Concerto for Group and Orchestra. Living composers from Alfred Schnittke and György Ligeti to Philip Glass and James MacMillan keep writing them; composer-performers like Daniil Trifonov still craft vehicles for themselves, keeping the old battle freshly lit.
Source: Concerto
