was cornered into a rather idiotic debate with a fellow flutist about concertos and which one is more difficult. made me wonder what my favorite concerto is... for flute, of course.

whats yours?

Oh gosh... that is a real hard one. I don't think I could pick just one. My top two favorites are Mercandante in E minor and Mozart in G major. I LOVE all the Mozart ones!

Well, Khachaturian is my favorite Concerto, but the Danzi no. 2 in d minor is quite fabulous as well!

I have too many to list, I love the late Baroque, roccoco concerti of the great royal court composers..but it brings up an interesting topic, I would say for difficulty, and the reason it is required for so many auditions, is Mozart, as he used notes in such an economically artistic way, you have to learn to say so much with so often few notes...

I like the Bach pieces too, but did Bach ever write a concerto? Heck isn't a toccata a better test for difficulty if that is the point? Sometimes slow songs are harder to play than a fast one that jumps all over the place. It takes real effort to make a long whole note sound unique, and expressive. Anyone can move their fingers fast and go up and down the regsiter.

when I was invited to Taiwan last Feb to judge that competition, all the students played fast, showy, flashy pieces, we all told the organizers to require Mozart or Bach next time, we wanted to see what they could do with a simple phrase...I would have been more impressed with an artistic rendering of Twinkle Twinkle the sloppy performances I heard of Prokofieff...

ive never heard the khachaturian before... (off to search for it) im surprised that mozart is one of the favorites. really, i am. personally, im becoming more fond of the ibert concerto everytime i hear it.

khachaturian was originally for violin. Rampal trsnscribed it...I have amateur recordings of me playing the third mvt. onmy site.It's really awesome. The 2nd mvt....WOW!! SO gorgeous! Ibert...kinda gettin over that one...it's good for flashy, but it doesn't quite get me musically.

-Dennis

I am not a big fan of khachaturian, but the Ibert is nice. I don't like to flashy myself and I suppose that it why I don't much care for the khachaturian. To me some of those pieces are like a cluster of notes without any rhyme or reason. I feel this way about the more modern pieces also. I prefer the classical and romantic era best. A lot of the french pieces.. ick.

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Oh sorry, for some reason I was thinking of the Prokofiev sonata when you mentioned Ibert. I have no idea why. I am not a fan of Ibert that much either, it is okay. Again.. it feels like one of the pieces that say "hey look how many hard runs I can play." If you know what I mean. I think simple is better.

Kate? You prefer the Ibert over Khachaturian? Yet, you don't iike notes without a rhyme or reason? The Ibert is pretty much no rhyme or reason compared to Khach. Both are extremely difficult, but the Khachaturian has a consistent melody the piece revolves around. :-(

just a bunch of notes? the second movement is so beautiful... but im a big fan of the modern music. i can say i absolutely HATE the jacob concerto for a fact. that has no melody and clashes with the orchestra. but we all have our own tastes.

ballade by martin is a nice piece too... not too fond of the beginning but after that its a nice piece.

and about flashy: when youre doing a big contest, one needs flashy to impress ones audience and keep them from falling asleep. ive fallen asleep during many a concert because the piece that was being played just wasnt a nicely written piece. its fairly common among the modern pieces, but when going back to the ol' standbys, you have to keep thinking about how many times youve heard the piece and want to drop kick it across the room because its just so... overplayed.

and ive heard of the khachaturian , but ive never heard a performance before until today (thank you rhapsody.com and their free trials)

what did you think of it?

Kate? You prefer the Ibert over Khachaturian?

Dennis, go back and read what I added to my post. I was thinking of another piece, I am not too fond of Iberts either.
Yes, we all have our own preferences I guess. I like fun pieces with melody that can be flashy but not some of those modern pieces that just go on and on with notes all over the place. I do like some modern pieces, just not all. Doppler has some pretty flashy pieces and I must say he is one of my favorite composers of all time.

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I really like (a lot!) what azflutist wrote:

"It takes real effort to make a long whole note sound unique, and expressive. Anyone can move their fingers fast and go up and down the regsiter."

i think i was responding when you were adding to yours. It wasn't there when I was reading and replying.

Dennis

Please don't start this idiotic debate over which concerto is better, it makes you sound like an amateur or a music school know it all...this thread is just about that type of debate, to each his own,, I like both concertos, but I don't like Rodrigo, so what...