concertino

In music, originally a group of solo instruments playing alternately with the orchestra (ripieno) in a work of the Concerto grosso type. The term has subsequently come to mean a small scale concerto for a solo instrument.

Examples include that by Leoš Janáček for piano, clarinet, horn, bassoon, two violins, viola, composed in 1925 and first performed in Brno (Czech Republic) on 16 February 1926; also that by Igor Stravinsky for string quartet, composed in 1920 and revised in 1952 for 12 instruments, first performed in Los Angeles, USA, on 11 November 1957.