Most listener friendly orchestral music: The Concerto

The motto of Alexander Dumas's Classic novel "The Three Musketeers" was "All for one & One for all." The motto of a Concerto could well be "One against All" which may be one of the reasons for its popularity.

In any group of professional musicians who are trained similarly, there may be one or two who are noticeably above the rest in technical & musical ability. To utilise the superior talents of these "virtuoso", the Concerto form was born.

The average concerto will have three movements as opposed to the normal four of a symphony. The first movement will usually be in Sonata form & will start with an exposition by the orchestra, setting the stage for the soloist to enter with a flourish. After the development & near the end of the recapitulation, the soloist will fall silent, only to re-enter with the "raison d'etre", the Cadenza, in splendid isolation, to showcase his technical & musical mastery 

The Adagio/Andante will highlight the lyrical/ tonal qualities of the solo instrument while the finale will usually be a Rondo, where the soloist & orchestra will join together in a joyous crescendo.

Some of the popular concertos are Mozart's "Elvira Madigan" Piano concerto, Beethoven's only Violin Concerto & Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto 2.