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Piano Concerto No. 1 in B- at Minor, Op. 23

WORK BY TCHAIKOVSKY

WRITTEN BY: Betsy Schwarm

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Listen: Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B- at Minor, Op. 23

The rst movement, “Allegro,” of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B- at Minor, Op. 23.
Musopen.org

Piano Concerto No. 1 in B- at Minor, Op. 23, concerto for piano and orchestra by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The work is
particularly famed for the sequence of pounding chords with which the soloist’s part launches the rst movement. The piece
premiered in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 25, 1875.

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Listen: Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B- at Minor, Op. 23

The second movement, “Andantino,” of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B- at Minor, Op. 23.
Musopen.org

Possessing limited piano skills, Tchaikovsky wrote the concerto intending to persuade a colleague to give the premiere
performance. He rst approached Nikolay Rubinstein, a pianist and the director of the Moscow Conservatory at which
Tchaikovsky taught. Rubinstein condemned the work as badly written and refused to play it unless substantial changes were
made. Tchaikovsky declined to revise the piece and offered it instead to the German virtuoso Hans von Bülow, who, nding
more to admire than had Rubinstein, agreed to perform it. The premiere, given during an American tour, was an immediate
success, and the piece soon became equally popular in Europe. In the face of the new concerto’s undeniable success,
Rubinstein withdrew his earlier criticism. He agreed to conduct the Moscow premiere and even made the concerto part of his
own repertory.

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Listen: Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B- at Minor, Op. 23

The third movement, “Allegro con fuoco,” of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in B- at Minor, Op. 23.
Musopen.org

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Piano-Concerto-No-1-in-B-flat-Minor 1/4
1/28/2019 Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op. 23 | work by Tchaikovsky | Britannica.com

The rst movement opens with a bold horn call heralding a series of powerful chords from the soloist. The strings introduce

an expansive theme, which 
is then taken 
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 by
up by the piano. The second movement, contrast, is languid, with lighter use of
the orchestral instruments. For the nale, Tchaikovsky offers a rondo with various alternating melodies, some of which are
heard more than once, and ends by returning to the powerful driven energy of the opening.

Betsy Schwarm

LEARN MORE in these related Britannica articles:

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Middle years

…of 1874, Tchaikovsky wrote his Piano Concerto No. 1 in B- at Minor, a work destined for fame despite its initial rejection
by Rubinstein. The concerto premiered successfully in Boston in October 1875, with Hans von Bülow as the soloist.
During the summer of 1875, Tchaikovsky composed Symphony No. 3 in……

Van Cliburn

…of Cliburn’s interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1, which he had played during the nal round of
competition (along with two other compositions), became the rst classical album to reach platinum status.…

concerto

Concerto, since about 1750, a musical composition for instruments in which a solo instrument is set off against an
orchestral ensemble. The soloist and ensemble are related to each other by alternation, competition, and combination.
In this sense the concerto, like the symphony or the string…

piano

Piano, a keyboard musical instrument having wire strings that sound when struck by felt-covered hammers operated
from a keyboard. The standard modern piano contains 88 keys and has a compass of seven full octaves plus a few keys.…

orchestra

Orchestra, instrumental ensemble of varying size and composition. Although applied to various ensembles found in
Western and non-Western music, orchestra in an unquali ed sense usually refers to the typical Western music
ensemble of bowed stringed instruments complemented by wind and percussion instruments that, in the string
section at least, has…

ADDITIONAL MEDIA

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Assorted References

discussed in biography
(In Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Middle years)

performance by Cliburn
(In Van Cliburn)

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