YouTube is full of brilliant piano concerto performances, but a handful have attracted truly massive global audiences.
From Rachmaninoff (lots and lots of Rachmaninoff…) to Mozart to Chopin, here are the seven most viewed piano concerto performances on YouTube, along with our commentary about each, in reverse countdown order.
And not to sound like a YouTube title cliche, but the most popular one might surprise you!
7. Frédéric Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 by Olga Scheps
14 million views
Olga Scheps is a German pianist born in 1984, who is especially passionate about the works of Chopin.
This performance of his first piano concerto was recorded in 2014 with the Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio.
Scheps brings an elegant, lyrical touch to this repertoire. Every phrase conjures some new gradation of emotion. She concentrates hard while still being clearly delighted by the music she’s playing, and that combination is irresistible.
The performance’s intimate atmosphere is enhanced by the smaller chamber orchestra.
6. Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 by Yunchan Lim
17 million views
Yunchan Lim’s winning performance from the 2022 Van Cliburn Competition made him a classical music superstar overnight…and this performance is a major reason why. Even videos just commenting on this video have millions of views!
Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto is notorious for its countless demands, both technical and emotional, but Lim vanquishes all of them with an ease that verges on preternatural.
His poise, control, and intensity are jaw-dropping. (Did we mention he’s only eighteen in this video?)
This performance is a must-listen for any modern piano lover.
The performance went so viral that the Van Cliburn Competition actually posted a second version featuring remastered audio. That one has 4.9 million views of its own. If you combine the two, it would place number four on this list.
REMASTERED: Yunchan Lim Plays Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30
5. Frédéric Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 by Seong-Jin Cho
19 million views
Here’s another competition-winning video that went viral: a performance of Chopin’s first piano concerto by Seong-Jin Cho, who won the 2015 Chopin International Piano Competition.
Cho’s interpretation is refined and heartfelt, with a natural elegance that makes even difficult passages seem effortless.
It’s sheer joy to watch him finish the concerto; he looks like he’s in his own little world of musicmaking, and we’ve been lucky enough to get to spy on it.
4. Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 by Nobuyuki Tsujii
21 million views
The musicality of blind pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii touches audiences deeply.
He learns music by ear, which enables him to learn (and hear) this music in a different way from other performers.
His technical mastery is remarkable, as is his heartbreaking sincerity.
The YouTube heatmap reveals that the most popular part of the performance is the ebullient ending from 30:45 on, where all of the sad loneliness of the first two movements turns into hard-won triumph. It’s mysterious and moving.
3. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 21 by Yeol Eum Son
26 million views
This performance is from the final round of the 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition, where pianist Yeol Eum Son would go on to win the silver medal.
It’s a lovely performance. Her touch throughout is beautifully measured. Every phrase has something to say, and serves a purpose within the longer musical line.
The concerto’s most famous part is its slow movement, which begins at 15:05. It was used in the movie Elvira Madigan, which has become the concerto’s nickname.
2. Sergei Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 by Anna Fedorova
45 million views
Anna Fedorova’s rendition of Rachmaninoff’s second piano concerto is the kind of performance that hits a listener squarely in the center of the chest: full-blooded and deeply personal.
Filmed at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, this video is shot in a way that emphasises the architecture of the hall, as well as the way that the hall’s audience is wrapped tightly around the musicians. It lends a sense of intimacy to both the music-making and the cinematography.
Fedorova’s ability to balance power and restraint makes the concerto especially moving. Listen at 4:20 to how she treats the dreamy ascending and descending passages, then immediately follows those up with a quicksilver fleetness.
1. Cat Concerto from Tom and Jerry by Yannie Tan
66 million views
Here’s the most-viewed piano concerto video on YouTube. Turns out it’s not actually a piano concerto at all: it’s a version of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, as arranged for the cartoon Tom and Jerry, performed by pianist Yannie Tan.
It’s cute, fun, and completely unexpected. The result is pure piano joy…complete with a cat ear costume.
Conclusion
From Rachmaninoff’s second concerto to Rachmaninoff’s third concerto, from Chopin to Chopin, and from Mozart to a concerto for a cat, all seven of these performances prove how compelling piano concerto videos can be to online audiences.
Which one of these seven is your favourite? And which pianist do you think will be the first to break 100 million views?
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One is never tired of Rachmaninoff Second piano concerto and Noboyuki’s interpretation brings tears in my eyes. In a world as today, signed with unrest, it is comforting to see an example of human capacity to overcome adversity. The deepness of the orchestra playing adds to the emotion.
Yannie playing along with Tom is a supreme work of art.
Those were days when Disney’s studios works were a message of culture adapted to the entertainment of children…and adults. (My father used to laugh so loudly that my mother hushed him). Because of course, we were in a cinema surrounded by people, not seated lazily in the living room in front of the television or, as I am now, with i-pad on my lap.
As the toll continues to rise in the destruction of high culture, Classical music is yet another victim of shortened attention spans, adherents being led by the nose and told to ignore history or hate it, thus loosing the performances of titans who were more in touch with the composers as meaningless or harmful detritus . I guess just being new is all that counts. There is a soul to these pieces not just the tinkling of the keys. We have had a torrent of technicians, but just a handful of artists. This has become a world that would gladden the heart of P.T. Barnum.
One of my favourite piano concerto is the number 2 of S. Rachmaninoff played by the Texan pianist van Cliburn
Dommage que ni Bach ni Beethoven ni Schumann ne figurent à ce palmarès qui en dit beaucoup sur l’étroitesse musicale des goûts formés au numérique !