Piano Concerto No. 1 (Rachmaninoff) (original) (raw)

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Piano concerto by Sergei Rachmaninoff

Robert Feist conducting the University of Washington Symphony Orchestra, pianist: Neal O'Doan [Wikidata]

Sergei Rachmaninoff composed his Piano Concerto No. 1 in F♯ minor, Op. 1, in 1891, at age 17–18 (the first two movements were completed while he was still 17; the third movement and the orchestration were completed shortly after he had turned 18). He dedicated the work to Alexander Siloti. He revised the work thoroughly in 1917.

External audio
Performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy with the London Symphony Orchestra under André Previn
audio icon I. Vivace – Moderato
audio icon II. Andante
audio icon III. Allegro vivace

The work is in three movements:

Alexander Siloti with Rachmaninoff.

This was actually Rachmaninoff's second attempt at a piano concerto. In 1889 he had begun but abandoned a concerto in C minor (the same key, incidentally, in which he would later write his Second Piano Concerto). He wrote Natalya Skalon on 26 March 1891, "I am now composing a piano concerto. Two movements are already written; the last movement is not written, but is composed; I shall probably finish the whole concerto by the summer, and then in the summer orchestrate it."[4] He finished composing and scoring the piece on 6 July and was satisfied with what he had written.[5] The first movement was premiered on 17 March 1892 at the Moscow Conservatory, with the composer as soloist and Vasily Safonov conducting. This may have been the only time the composer played the concerto in its original form, although Siloti, to whom it is dedicated, programmed it to play himself on several occasions.[6]

Composition students were usually advised to base their efforts on a specific model for their first exercises in new forms. In Rachmaninoff's case this was the Grieg Piano Concerto,[7] which was a favourite work of his and one with which he had been familiar from Siloti practicing it at the Rachmaninoff household during the spring and summer of 1890 for future concerts.[8] Rachmaninoff adapted the entire musical structure of the outer movements to the Grieg concerto, literally building his music into it. With all his other concertos, Rachmaninoff would prove more enterprising.[9]

Revision and current structure

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The public was already familiar with the Second and Third Concertos before Rachmaninoff revised the First in 1917. The First is very different from his later works; in exchange for less memorable melodies, this concerto incorporates elements of youthful vivacity and impetuosity.

The differences between the 1890–1891 original and the 1917 revision reveal a tremendous amount about the composer's development in the intervening years. There is a considerable thinning of texture in the orchestral and piano parts and much material that made the original version diffuse and episodic is removed.[10]

Of all the revisions Rachmaninoff made to various works, this one was perhaps the most successful. Using an acquired knowledge of harmony, orchestration, piano technique and musical form, he transformed the early composition into a concise, spirited work.[3] Nevertheless, he was perturbed that the revised work did not become popular with the public. He said to Alfred Swan, "I have rewritten my First Concerto; it is really good now. All the youthful freshness is there, and yet it plays itself so much more easily. And nobody pays any attention. When I tell them in America that I will play the First Concerto, they do not protest, but I can see by their faces that they would prefer the Second or Third."[11]

Selected recordings

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  1. ^ "Piano Concerto No. 1 (Sergei Rachmaninoff)". Los Angeles Philharmonic. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  2. ^ Norris 1993, p. 107.
  3. ^ a b c Norris 1993, p. 111
  4. ^ Norris 2001, 1. 1873–92.
  5. ^ Bertensson & Leyda 1956, pp. 36–37.
  6. ^ Harrison 2005, p. 37.
  7. ^ Niels 2001, p. 4.
  8. ^ Harrison 2005, pp. 36–37.
  9. ^ Niels 2001, pp. 4–5.
  10. ^ Norris 1993, pp. 106–107.
  11. ^ Swan, Alfred Julius and Jane Ballard Swan, "Rachmaninoff: Personal Reminiscences", The Musical Quarterly, vol. 30 (1944), 8.
  12. ^ Niels 2001.
  13. ^ "Rachmaninoff 150: Yuja Wang, Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Perform the Works for Piano and Orchestra". Deutsche Grammophon.