Piano Concerto No. 1 (Tchaikovsky)

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in B flat minor, op. 23 was composed in the winter of 1874–75 at the instigation of piano virtuoso Nikolai Rubinstein, director of the Conservatory in Moscow. Rubinstein, the work´s dedicatee, was originally also to be its first performer. However, when at Christmas in 1874 Tchaikovsky proudly showed the work to Rubinstein and two other musical friends, he met with bitter disappointment, for after they had given it a first play-through, Rubinstein hastily dismissed the concerto as "banal, clumsy and incompetently written" and asked Tchaikovsky to undertake a substantial reworking of it in accordance with his own wishes. The proud composer, however, did not oblige and responded by altering his original dedication, so that the soloist on the occasion of the concerto´s first performance – on 25th October 1875 in Boston – was Hans von Bulow, celebrated German pianist and conductor and an admirer of Tchaikovsky´s music. The Russian premiere took place just one week later in Saint Petersburg, with Russian pianist Kross and Czech conductor Eduard Nápravník.

The concerto is markedly symphonic in character and differs considerably from the more musically conservative and outwardly virtuoso type of concerto that was then widely popular in Russia, yet the technical demand placed upon the pianist remains considerable. There are both passages in which one can not maintain contact with the keyboard (octaves in rapid succession for sustained periods of time are an example), as well as the style more common of keyboard music, a note arrangement where the hands of the performer need never leave the keyboard, such as in a Beethoven piano sonata. However, even the latter are formidable due to speed and awkward note arrangement. Further technical demands are placed on the performer, in keeping with the overall monumental nature of the work, and on account of the need to allow the piano to dominate over the orchestra in some passages.

The well-known theme of the moving introductory section to the first movement is based on a melody that Tchaikovsky heard performed by blind beggar-musicians at a market in Kamenka, near Kiev in the Ukraine. This, the best-known passage in the entire concerto, is notable also on account of its formal independence of the movement as a whole. Despite its very substantial nature, once it has been heard twice Tchaikovsky does not return to the material again.

• In three movements:

o I. Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso (D flat major) – Allegro con spirito (B flat minor). o II. Andantino simplice – Prestissimo (D flat major). o III. Allegro con fuoco (B flat major).

• Composed November 1874 – February 1875; revised in the summer of 1879 and again in December 1888.
• Scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, strings, and solo piano.
• Also arranged for two pianos by Tchaikovsky, December 1874; revised December 1888.
• First performed in Boston (USA), 13/25 October 1875, by Hans von Bülow, conducted by Benjamin Johnson Lang (1874–75 version).
• Dedicated to Hans von Bülow.

This article is a compilation of the data posted at: Tchaikowsky Page