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I've taken a strong interest in Bach's keyboard concerto in D minor along with several others such as Chopin's piano concertos, and I want to have an orchestra track to play the piano with if I were to learn these pieces...

Is it possible to obtain audio tracks that only consist of the orchestral parts so I can play along with it? Or even somehow create them?

I'm a mere teenager, I cannot hire an orchestra nor purchase expensive software for this... Any idea what I should do?

you could enter a competition, if you get far enough in it then you get to play with orchestra.

There is an entire series of recordings under the name of "Music Minus One" which records only the orchestra parts so that instrumentalists can play along with a (recorded) orchestra.

Go to their website :

MMO

and you'll see that they have over 500 recordings of accompaniments just for piano, along with accompaniments for voice and for many other instruments.

Some people like them: they are recordings of real orchestras, with the full parts recorded
Some people hate them: you have to adjust your interpretation to that of the recording, and the orchestras and conductors are not necessarily the world's best
but they can be helpful to some who can accept them for what they are.

Regards,

Many years ago (and yes this MMO company was offering these on cassette tapes then) I bought Mozart, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky concertos. I remember hating from them then.

Things like, the tick sound of the conductor when orchestra was not playing, not being able to adjust the speed of the tape to adopt my piano's tuning, quickly faded away my enthusiasm.
In later years, with the advance of technology, I tried recording from the tapes to a computer and was able to adjust the tuning and get rid of those tick sounds. Even then, I didn't like the idea of trying to keep up with an interpretation that is imposed on you.

I have MMO Mozart K491 on LP record.

I can't seem to find what I want and the fact that the products of this site requires purchase put me off, I don't see myself paying for this... Another other possibilities to explore?

Do you have any recording ability? When learning the Schumann concerto I recorded the second piano part so that I could practise with it and that allowed me to do it a tempo I could manage until I got it up to speed. Also, hearing the second part helped so that when the teacher was accompanying me I wasn't so thrown off by the additional sound.

I have several MMO accompaniment discs. The inflexibility disturbs me. I used one for the Schumann Quintet so that the strings would not throw me off when they were playing. I went over the required tempo and when the quartet showed up to practise, after the first run through I was asked to slow down and that made it more comfortable. The MMO did help me prepare for that but I think one must use them judiciously.

Ralph

I make my backing tracks myself this is the only way if you dont want to pay

learn sibelius 6
and learn about vst instruments also you need a midi piano i suggest you to cmeuf80 i use. And learn some recording tips. There you go you can record your own backing tracks for any piano concertos with this path.

I bought a concerto from the Dowani 3 Tempi Play Along series (I think I found it on Amazon). It comes with the full orchestra recording, plus the piano part recorded separately on slower tempo to show you how it should be played. The orchestra part is also recorded as a piano arrangement on slower tempo so you can practice with it before playing with the orchestra recording.

It works good and it's fun - at least for amateurs like me who will never be able to play with a real orchestra. : ) It can be a little annoying to listen to the ticking during the solo sections, and you have to adjust your playing to fit with the orchestra. But it's better than nothing, at least for me anyway...

I prepared the Bach D minor to perform with an orchestra. I used the Music Minus One recordings and found them to be a useful tool.

Drawbacks: you have to keep perfect tempo to match the recording. The recordings aren't the best. MMO comes with two CD's, one in a slow tempo and one at target tempo. I wish it had an even slower tempo to help during the early stages.

Benefits: you have to keep perfect tempo to match the recording - in other words, it reveals your inconsistencies. You thoroughly learn your entrances and you become very familiar with the orchestral part which make for a much more confident performance.

I'd recommend using MMO if you are going to eventually play with live musicians. If you just want to play it with recordings at home, you may find the rigidity of the recordings very frustrating.

I'd like to point out that I am by no means a performer or a pianist good enough for competitions.

I'm merely seeking enjoyment by playing a piano concerto or two, I love symphonic music but never got the chance to participate in any, the only instrument I know is the piano and I'm not even very good at it.

Edit: I found what I want on the Music Minus One site, but it's rather pricey and I doubt I am able to purchase any of them at all...

Yup, I agree. I've been playing their interpretation of the Mozart Piano Quartets. Great music, but geeze do they take them kind of fast. I also noticed that they sometimes cut the rests too short in a few places, which messes me up. I first thought it was me, which is usually the case, but with these pieces, it's the recording because I can hear a click noise as just before the recording kicks in again.

They're not perfect, but they sure are a lot of fun to play along with, and are a good learning tool. I found that they are great for sight reading and for learning to play along with other people because you have to listen carefully to the other parts. Besides, where I live there's a darth of classically trained musicians, so it's difficult to find anyone interested in doing some chamber music.

John

Thank you Bruce. It sounds interesting...

I must be blind or something - I couldn't find the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 in A which I will be performing. I think I will just murmur the second piano part for now...

Here it is :

Mozart: Concerto No. 23

Regards,

I was looking for this, and the price is really unaffordable for my case...

Here's the 2nd movement (free)

http://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?topic=34017.0