CONCERT, CONCERTO

INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL

Read and translate the following sentences paying special attention to the words in bold type.

1. The concert ended with Tchaikovsky’s irresistible «Little Russian» Symphony. 2. When the conductor came for the fares, he reminded them both of a funny-looking chap who gave out programs for the military band concerts in Ackroyd Park. 3. Mrs Short rapidly became prominent as a social worker and set the lead with her bazars, charity concerts, bridge drives and soup kitchens for the poor. 4. All the girls I know are like that. It’s like reproaching someone who has no ear for music because he’s bored at a symphony concert. 5. He spoke slowly, with special meaning. «Don’t forget you have an engagement at the concert.» «That!» Mother cried, all the softness in her nature shrinking from the mere idea. «I’m going to no concert, never, never.» «But you are, Grace.» «No, no. I can’t face it.» 6. They went along the promenade, past the empty shelters and the empty bandstands and the closed pied gates with the torn notices of old concerts. 7. I forgot all about becoming a nun or a concert pianist. 8. The current J. A. T. P. (Jazz at the Philharmonic) concert tour is really a living history of the jazz of the ‘30s and ‘40s. 9. On the afternoon of the concert Father came home by an earlier train. 10. Once they had gone to see a film, Chaplin in The Gold Rush, and again to Toniglan, at her suggestion, to an orchestral concert. 11. At the concert after supper Brett was in the audience with his sketchbook. 12. «Perhaps one day I might get a chance as a soloist in a concerto with a full symphony orchestra.» «Who are your favourite composers?» «Mozart and Beethoven. I have quite a lot of records of their works. I have all the Beethoven piano concertos except the third, and his violin concerto.» 13. Brahms’ Violin Concerto, for all its benign warmth and gentle poetry, is one of the most fiendishly difficult concertos of the 19th century. 14. «Whiffin, proclaim silence,» said the mayor, with an air of pomp befitting his lofty station. In obedience to this command the crier performed another concerto on the bell.

EXPLANATORY NOTES

Concert n. A musical performance, especially one given in a public hall by players or singers, or both; a public musical entertainment, e.g. an orchestral ~, a ~ pianist.

Concerto n. A musical composition (usually in three movements) for one or more solo instruments accompanied by an orchestra, e.g. a piano ~.

The nouns concert and concerto have one equivalent in Russian — концерт. The word концерт is applicable both to a musical performance (= concert) and to a musical composition of a certain type (= concerto). In everyday life the word concert is much more frequently used than the word concerto.