I mentioned in another post the intriguing Bassoon Concerto of Italian composer Antonio Scontrino (1850-1922), which inspired me to start this thread...
It seems to me that there are a relatively minuscule amount of concertante works for wind instruments written in the late-romantic era. Now, there are a handful of concertante works for horn and orchestra from this period, but it is debatable whether the horn is truly a wind instrument. Besides, I see there's already a thread for Romantic Era works for horn and orchestra.
Well, the most obvious examples that come to mind are Strauss' Oboe Concerto and Duett-Concertino for clarinet and bassoon, works I'm not overly fond of but fill this niche quite well. I suppose Finzi's Clarinet Concerto could be considered late-romantic, but, whatever the case, it has to be the most achingly beautiful works ever written for a solo wind instrument. Wolf-Ferrari wrote a couple very attractive concertante works with winds (including an Oboe Concerto) which could be described as having a late-romantic harmonic language but being clothed in a neoclassical aesthetic. Also, there's Chaminade's brief but utterly charming Flute Concertino.
So, my main question is: Why so few concertante works for winds in the grand manner like the concertos composers were churning out for piano, violin, and cello at the time? The Finzi concerto is the closest example I could think of that has the emotional depth and dramatic content of concertos written for the "usual three" during the period. Many late-romantics (Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Rimsky, Sibelius, etc.) exploited a great fondness and gratifying writing for the winds in their orchestral works. So, why didn't they write any works that would fit the subject in question?
Any thoughts?
It seems to me that there are a relatively minuscule amount of concertante works for wind instruments written in the late-romantic era. Now, there are a handful of concertante works for horn and orchestra from this period, but it is debatable whether the horn is truly a wind instrument. Besides, I see there's already a thread for Romantic Era works for horn and orchestra.
Well, the most obvious examples that come to mind are Strauss' Oboe Concerto and Duett-Concertino for clarinet and bassoon, works I'm not overly fond of but fill this niche quite well. I suppose Finzi's Clarinet Concerto could be considered late-romantic, but, whatever the case, it has to be the most achingly beautiful works ever written for a solo wind instrument. Wolf-Ferrari wrote a couple very attractive concertante works with winds (including an Oboe Concerto) which could be described as having a late-romantic harmonic language but being clothed in a neoclassical aesthetic. Also, there's Chaminade's brief but utterly charming Flute Concertino.
So, my main question is: Why so few concertante works for winds in the grand manner like the concertos composers were churning out for piano, violin, and cello at the time? The Finzi concerto is the closest example I could think of that has the emotional depth and dramatic content of concertos written for the "usual three" during the period. Many late-romantics (Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Rimsky, Sibelius, etc.) exploited a great fondness and gratifying writing for the winds in their orchestral works. So, why didn't they write any works that would fit the subject in question?
Any thoughts?