Piano Concerto no. 1 (Rachmaninov)

The Piano Concerto no. 1 in F-sharp minor opus one of the Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninov (1873-1943) is a three-part concert for piano and symphony orchestra .

Rachmaninov composed it in 1891, when he was nineteen years old, largely on the family estate estate Ivanovka . He dedicated the work to his nephew, the pianist and conductor Alexander Siloti . Rachmaninov revised the work thoroughly in 1917.

Parts
The work has three parts: On April 7, 1891, Rachmaninoff wrote to Natalya Skalon ". The last part is composed, but not yet recorded this summer I will finish the whole concert and orchestrationmake it around. " And that he did, but soon afterwards he fell dissatisfied.
 * Vivace (F-sharp minor)
 * Andante cantabile (D major)
 * Allegro scherzando (F-sharp minor → F sharp major) (the 1917 version: Allegro vivace)

The first part was to premiere on 17 March 1892 at the Moscow Conservatory with the composer at the piano. Vasily Safonov conducted. The revised version was first performed in its entirety on January 29 1919 in New York .

The concert, as his first work, one of the compositions that wanted revise Rachmaninov, along with the Caprice bohémien on. 12 and the Symphony no. 1, op. 13.

The revised version has a stronger structure, a more refined harmony and orchestration, and is more refined written for the piano. The original thematic material remained virtually unchanged.

[Recordings edit ]

 * Sergey Rachmaninoff , pianist , Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy , 1941.
 * Byron Janis, pianist, Chicago Symphony Orchestra , conducted by Fritz Reiner , 1957.
 * Vladimir Ashkenazy, pianist, London Symphony Orchestra conducted by André Previn , 1972.